Philologist and journalist.
Sidney Baker was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to English-born parents Sidney George Baker and Lilian Selby (née Whitehead). He was educated at Wellington College and Victoria University College, Wellington, though he did not graduate from the latter. He was influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche, and was an admirer of D.H. Lawrence.
Baker arrived in Australia in 1935. After a period spent in London, he returned to New Zealand, but soon found himself back in Australia, where he worked as a journalist on numerous papers: A.B.C. Weekly (1941-42), the Daily Telegraph (1943-46), the Melbourne Herald and Sun News-Pictorial (1946-47), and the Sydney Morning Herald (from 1947).
However, his primary work (on which his posthumous reputation rests) was his exhaustive collection and interpretation of Australian idioms. He researched language in Australia and New Zealand and published several books on the subject, including Dictionary of Australian Slang (1941) and The Australian Language (1945).
Source: Sidney John Baker at the Australian Dictionary of Biography online (http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/baker-sidney-john-9411). Sighted: 12/8/2011
