A Middle-English Dictionary: Containing Words Used by English Writers From the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century (Classic Reprint) - Tapa dura

Sinopsis

Excerpt from A Middle-English Dictionary: Containing Words Used by English Writers From the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century

English, their antecedents in old-english, and their cognates in other languages. Such explanations of meanings as were given were merely sub sidiary to this Object. Not infrequently, indeed, words (and those not merely compounds or obvious derivatives) were left without interpretation altogether in other cases the sense was indicated only by Latin words, which were often themselves ambiguous. Where a middle-english word was glossed by a modern-english one, the latter was commonly the etymological equivalent, even though the word might have undergone a complete change of meaning. In a very large number of instances the only vernacular gloss is an obsolete or dialectal word taken from Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words,' or some similar source, and quite unintelligible to ordinary English readers. The following examples will illustrate the author's method - ehe owen chew (chow, chz'g), mandere, objnrgare; cubbel, lez'bble, fnstz's; galstron galsz'er (ganster), crepare; galwen, gallow (gully), ferrere P; geolpen, yelp glorz'arz', jacz'arz' kitelen lez'ttle, tz'tz'llare; plaigen flaw, lndere; sehnte Shani, lembns [the word means a flat-bottomed boat]; scorklin, sear/ale, nstnlare; snobben, snob, sz'ngnltz're slumen, slonm, dormz'tare. In the present edition, I have endeavoured to provide every word with an intelligible explanation in English. When a word has greatly changed in meaning, I have cited the modern form for the sake of completing the etymological history of theword, but in such a manner as not to mislead the reader as to the earlier sense. As the distinctive feature of the book is that the examples are arranged according'to the grammatical forms, and not according to the senses, it is obvious that the shades of meaning could not be explained with the same precision and completeness as in larger works like that of 'matzner, or the New English Dictionary, but it is hoped that the explanations given will be found sufficiently full and accurate for ordinary practical needs. The indication of the parts of speech, which was wholly omitted in the original work, has been supplied.

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