Lexicographer, linguist, author and translator

Erin was born in Senglea, the son of Antonio Serracino and Pia née Inglott. He was educted at the Lyceum and the RUM. He joined the Malta civil service in 1924 and served in various departments. At various times he served as assistant director of public lotto, chief librarian at the National Library, and director of civil prisons. In 1951 he was nominated private secretary to Prime Minister Dr Enrico Mizzi*. He even taught Maltese at Stella Maris College.

Serracino-Inglott had three great interests in life: chess, music, and the Maltese language. As Malta chess champion, he represented his country in various international tournaments. He was the first Maltese chess player to represent Malta abroad at the international chess tournament of Brighton (1938). He played against various celebrated personalities like Meister Mieses (1930) and the world champion Alexander Alekhine (1935). Serracino-Inglott also had a passion for operatic music. His interest led him to write Storja tal-Opra Lirika and Annali tal-Opra Lirika. He was also an actor and a playwright, and in his early years he formed part of the theatrical companies La Giovine Senglea  and Carlo Goldoni.

During the war years Serracino-Inglott wrote various novels, plays, and translated several works. He also started compiling his Maltese vocabulary in 1942. In 1943 he became a member of the Akkademja tal-Malti. His plays include Razju Vidal, acclaimed as the second best dramatic piece in Maltese after Il-Fidwa tal-Bdiewa, Ir-Raħeb, Il-Kerjoti, and Il-Barrani; the last three in verse. In 1942 he also wrote plays in prose, including ‘Raġel li Ħadha mal-Mewt’ and its sequel ‘Ir-Raġel li Twieled mill-ġdid’, ‘Il-Wiċċ u l-Qalb’, and ‘Id-Difer’. ‘Santa Tereza u x-Xitan ’ remains unpublished.

Serracino-Inglott’s collections of short stories were published in Sħarijiet and Kubrit ta’ Hemm Isfel. He also translated La Divina Commedia, Il-Kamra s-Safra and Il-Fwieħa tal-Mara Liebsa l-Iswed, two novels by Gaston Leroux. In the fifties he ushered the thriller genre in Maltese literature through his series of stories with the Maltese detective Il-Bażużlu.

Serracino-Inglott’s works on the Maltese language include various etymological and lexicographical articles like ‘The Triliterally of Quadriliterals in Semitic Maltese’ and ‘Toponomastika’, a study of place-names in Maltese. In 1937 he compiled a list of Maltese words which he required for his writing, and this he called ‘:abra ta’ Kliem’. This list was then enlarged into Il-Vokabolarju Malti, which ultimately led him to compile Il-Miklem Malti, an etymological dictionary in nine volumes.

In his mission of recording the meanings of old and new words, he was faced with the task of semantic selection. Words are often found to have more than one clearly recognizable meaning and Serracino-Inglott tried to record the first known meanings together with the more modern meanings. He believed that the most fruitful way to approach the meaning of a word is by way of the etymology which illuminates not only the meaning but also its relation with other words. Etymology and meaning are then complemented by figurative and idiomatic illustrations for further consolidation. It was the first monolingual dictionary in Maltese. Serracino-Inglott died blind leaving this monumental work unfinished. His son, Mario, completed it.

Serracino-Inglott was married to Leonilda nèe Gatt and they had five children, Mario, Vanda, Laura, Aldo and Selma.              

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.