A Middle English dictionary, containing words used by English writers from the twelfth to the fifteenth century PDF
Preview A Middle English dictionary, containing words used by English writers from the twelfth to the fifteenth century
A Middle-Endish Dictionary CONTAINING WORDS USED BY ENGLISH WRITERS FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY BY FRANCIS HENRY STRATMANN A New Edition RE-ARRANGED, REVISED, AND ENLARGED BY HENRY BRADLEY OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS THE SHORTER OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY ON HISTORICAL PRINCIPLES Prepared by WILLIAM LITTLE, H. W. FOWLER COULSON JESSIE Revised and edited by C. T. ONIONS Third edition. (revised) Corrected impression, with revised and enlarged Addenda, printed on thinner paper and bound in one volume. Also available in two volumes. This abridgement of the OxfordEnglish Die- , tionary presents on a reduced scale all the features of the principal work. It is designed to embrace no*only the colloquialandliterary- English ofthepresentday, butalso a consider- able proportion of obsolete, archaic, and dia- lectal uses. Although the 'Shorter' is one-sixth ofthe length ofthe O.E.D., it is not short by the standards of oth—er fuU and comprehensive English dictionaries itcontains more illustra- tive quotations than any of them, and the numberofwordstreated amountstotwo-thirds ofthe original. Itcovers a vocabularyofabout 163,000 words besides combinations and idio- matic phrases. TK NYPUBLICLIBRARY THEBRANCHLIBRARIES 3 3333 05717 2369 M^ w£ "^fl^i^li^'' USE CMIY THIS BOOK IS FOR REFERC4CE R08M MID MAY im BE TAKEN FROM THIS A MIDDLE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY BRADLEY H. Oxford University Press OXFORD LONDON NEW YORK GLASGOW TORONTO MELBOURNE Wl:LLINGTON CAPETOWN IBAUAN NAIROBI DARESSALAAM LUSAKA ADDISABABA DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA KUALALUMPUR SINGAPORE HONGKONG TOKYO ISBN O 19 863106 5 \A MIDDLE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY/ CONTAINING WORDS USED BY ENGLISH WRITERS FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY BY FRANCIS HENRY STRATMANN A NEIV EDITION, RE-ARRANGED, REVISED, AND ENLARGED BY HENRY BRADLEY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS FIRSTEDITION ISgI Reprinted lithographicallyinGreat Britain by LOWE AND BRYDONE (PRINTERS) LTD, THETFORD, NORFOLK fromsheets ofthefirst edition i940> 1951. 1954) 1958, 1963, i967> I97'> '974 7.0 ff 3. S PREFACE. The Dictionary of Middle-English' compiled by Dr. F. H. Stratmann, of Krefeld, is the only comprehensive dictionary of that stage of the English language hitherto published in a completed state; the only other existing work of the same kind being that of Matzner, of which the first instalment appeared in 1878, and which has as yet been carried only to the letter J. The third and latest edition of Dr. Stratmann's dictionary was published in 1878, and an extensive supplement was issued in 1881. At the time of the author's death, which took place in 1884, he had apparently almost completed the preparation of a new edition. The copyright of the work was subsequently purchased bythe Delegates ofthe Clarencjon Press, and the author's materials for the new edition (consisting of an annotated copy ofthe printed book) were placed in my hands to be prepared for the press. The unanimous opinion of the scholars in this country who were consulted was that simply to reprint the work in the form contemplated by the author would be wholly unadvisable, and that an extensive revision was needed in order to adapt it to the needs of English students. Although the book was marked by great learning and ability, as well as by extraordinary industry, it had certain serious practical defects, chiefly, it may be remarked, due to those limitations of scope without which it would probablyhave been impossible for the author to bring his work to completion in any reasonable number oF years. The principal respects in which the prese—nt edition aims at being an improvement on the original work are as follows : 1. If the definition of a dictionary be that it is a book which explains the meaning of words, Dr. Stratmann's work can scarcely be regarded as a dictionary at all. With the meaning of Middle-English words, the author concerned himself but little ; his principal care was to identify them etymo- logically; that is to say, to connect them with their descendants in Modern- ' In the published editionstheworkisentitled 'A Dictionary' ofthe Old English Language;' but in revising it fora new edition the author substituted • Middle-English' for 'Old English' in the title-page. He also indicated that in the body of the diciionary the abbreviation -A.-S.' (,Anglo-Saxon} should be changed into 'O.E.' PREFACE. \1 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 etyrpological 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 ' DictionaryofArchaic and Provincial Words,' or some similar source, and quite unintelligible to ordinary En—glish readers. The following examples will illustrate the author's method : che- owen . . . chew [chow, chig), mandere, objurgate; eubbel, kibble,fustts; galstron . . . galsier (gauster), creparc; galwen, gallow {gaily), terrere?; jeolpen, yelp {yilp), gloriari, jactari; kitelen . . . kittle, titillare; plaigen . . . plaiv, ludcre) schftte . . . shout, lembtis [the word means a flat-bottomed boat] ; scorklin, scorkle, ustulare; snobben, snob, singultire; sliimen, sloum, dormitare. 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 the word, 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 wholl}^ omitted in the original work, has been supplied. 2. Another inconvenient feature of the original dictionary was its per- plexing etymological arrangement. The compound words, instead of being inserted in alphabetical order, were placed under their initial element, even though this happened to be an inseparable prefix. Hence, in order to fi—nd one ofthese words, it was necessary to know, or to conjecture its etymology or rather. Dr. Stratmann's opinion as to its etymology. Suppose, for example, the word amaien is to be sought for in the Dictionary by a studentwho has no notion of its derivation. The first step of course is to look for it in its a pha- We betical place. It is not there, nor is there a cross-reference. next turn to the words under the prefix a-, but amaien is not among them. The cross- reference a-, see ab-, ad-, an-, and-, at-, en-, es-, je-, and of-, gives us the choice of ten other places, in any ofwhich the word we are seeking may possibly be found. As a matter offact, it is placed under es-, so that the reader who takes
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