Ferdinand Brunot

Ferdinand-Eugène-Jean-Baptiste Brunot (6 November 1860 – 7 January 1938) was a French linguist and philologist, editor of the ground-breaking Histoire de la langue française des origines à 1900 ("History of the French Language from its Origins to 1900").

Here he began his long collaboration with fellow linguist Louis Petit de Julleville and produced the first volume of his monumental History, dealing with medieval French.

Brunot served as mayor of the 14th arrondissement of Paris in the difficult war years of 1914 through 1919, and served as dean of the University of Paris from 1919 through 1928 while engineering its significant expansion.

He was appointed to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1925, later serving as its president, and was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion of Honor in 1933.

One of the squares in Paris and one of its fountains, both in his home arrondissement, bear his name.