Félix Gaffiot

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Félix Gaffiot (1870–1937) was a French philologist and teacher famous for writing the Latin–French dictionary Le Gaffiot, published in 1934 as Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français. The dictionary is known for its clear typography and illustrations and has been reprinted many times; a modern complete edition appeared in 2000.

He was born in Liesle, in the Loue valley. His father was a teacher and his mother a town clerk. He lost his father at thirteen but still won a municipal scholarship to attend secondary school in Pontarlier. He earned a Bachelor of Science and Letters but chose to study the arts instead of aiming for the École Polytechnique, and began teaching at Pont-à-Mousson while preparing for the agrégation.

Gaffiot taught for twelve years in the Massif Central, at Le Puy-en-Velay and Clermont-Ferrand. He studied Latin grammar, which he viewed as absolute and conventional, and in 1906 his doctoral thesis focused on how Latin is learned. After obtaining the agrégation, he became a professor at the Sorbonne and, in 1910, published Méthode de langue latine, where he argued that French evolved from Latin.

World War I interrupted his work, and he served as an auxiliary medical officer in the Forest of Argonne. After the war, he turned more to painting and to studies at a fine arts school. In 1927, following disputes with colleagues, he left the Sorbonne and joined the University of Besançon. He became Dean of the Faculty of Letters in 1933 and was reappointed in 1936. He retired in October 1937 and died in November 1937, shortly after a car crash near Mouchard.

Gaffiot left a reputation as a demanding, exacting teacher. He also helped create a major reference work: in 1923 the publisher Hachette asked him to compile a Latin–French dictionary, which became Le Gaffiot when it appeared in 1934 after thousands of index cards were prepared. The dictionary has been widely used and repeatedly updated, with a modern complete edition released in 2000.