Questions tagged [middle-english]
Middle English is the period in the history of the English language between the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century.
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Is it possible that the word 'froward' in the KJV English is using the middle English definition of the word?
According to https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/froward - the following information was given for the word English word froward: "Once upon a time, in the days of Middle English, froward ...
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Send, sent; end, *ent?
The past tense of a number of verbs changes from -end to -ent:
bend → bent
lend → lent
rend → rent
send → sent
spend → spent
wend → went
However, most do not, notably end. Granted, I say “I ent up” (...
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“Crone” and “Crony”
Looking at the etymology of crone, a derogatory term for an old frail woman, we see it is a Late Middle English word, derived from Middle Dutch croonje, caroonje ‘carcass, old ewe’ with possible ties ...
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Why is slain a past participle of slay? [duplicate]
Past participles in the English language usually end with -ed, but slain is one exception. Why can't we have just slayed rather than that and slain, too? And why can't slain be its very own verb?
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When did 'ut'/'uþ' from Old English and Middle English become 'out'?
When was the transition of the word form 'ut'/'uþ' to 'out'?
I'd like to know about the frequency or first attestations.
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Is there a name for this kind of sentence structure where a clause is in subject position and **it** appears anaphorically in the matrix clause?
An early 15th century example of a clause deployed in subject position but with an anaphoric it as object of the verb in the matrix clause:
Þat þe sones of pore men gouernen may riche remes, telle it ...
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How did "ought" lose its original usage as the past tense of "owe"?
Ought is originally the past tense of owe (v.). It appears that this usage is retained in Scottish and in some dialects of English. The current use of ought in standard English is a modal auxiliary (...
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Pronunciation of Middle English phrases "clerkes finden", "the appil take ben", and "that appil take was"
In Britten's "Deo Gracias" (from A Ceremony of Carols) there are a few sentences and words which I don't really know how to pronounce:
clerkes finden
the appil take ben
that appil take was
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What on God's green earth are "pulley shoes"?
I keep running into sources talking about pulley-shoes, pulley-toe shoes, pulley-toes, &c. even though they don't always play well with Google OCR and are basically invisible to vanilla searches.
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Middle English “Whan that” vs “Whan”
whan pronoun
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses) whom
MED online University of Michigan
How does one construe “that” in the phrase “Whan that”? This seems to be the normal construction in ME, but ...
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Are the different senses of "stale" really cognate?
This is a question about etymology.
I have read all the freely available dictionary entries online, including etymoline, but they seem unclear at best if not downright contradictory. I do not have ...
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Chaucerian idiom: "any stain from Portugal"/"greyn of Portyngale"
I'm listening to The Canterbury Tales, and I noticed a phrase that made no sense to me:
And certainly he has no need to dye His cheeks with any stain from Portugal
It's a translation, so I looked up ...
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Is there a name for the meetings between kings and peasants?
In the middle ages, or in fiction, when the king holds a ceremony of sorts to meet with commoners and disscuss their issues one by one, is there a word for that, or a common name that could be ...
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When is the old english letter Æ/æ modernised to A, E and AE?
The old english letter Æ/æ in various words have been modernised to either A (Æthelstan to Athelstan); E (Ælf to Elf, Æthelræd to Ethelred) and sometimes both A and E in the same word (Ælfræd to ...
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Would you modernise Ætheling as Etheling, Aetheling or Atheling? Why?
Various modernised spellings exist for Old English words containing the letter Æ and æ for example Ætheling can be modernised as Etheling, Aetheling or Atheling.
Is there a reason to prefer one modern ...
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Is the use of "an" to mean "if" an invention of fantasy writers?
I've just read Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede, and the author has her characters speak in a vaguely Shakespearean manner, presumably to add atmosphere. In particular, her characters use ...
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The Saxon word "Scop" as in "bard."
Old & Middle English/Germanic Languages–Scholars, please help.
I'm interested in any information you might share on all senses of the Saxon word "Scop," meaning "Bard" or "...
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Were "Fell" and "Fel" both correct spellings?
I'm trying to describe evil magic and creatures to my players and to set the tone, I'm trying to use Middle and Old English words and phrases. After googling a while I couldn't find a definitive ...
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How did -ing become a suffix for both present participles and nouns derived from verbs?
In non-modern and non-Middle-English Germanic languages, present participles and nouns derived from verbs look and sound very different:
English: wend - wending - wending
Middle English: wenden - ...
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The eerie origin of "eerie"
Eerie is a rather common word but its origin is somewhat strange. In fact, OED doesn't provide the origin of the word eerie, but provides the etymology where it is given as a variant of an obsolete ...
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Does Middle English "w" relate to "uȝ"?
Does Middle English "w" relate to "uȝ"?
plow plouȝ
enow enouȝ
raw rouȝ
draw drouȝ
tow touȝ
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What words were used before "exist"?
The word "exist" was first used in English around 1568. The English must have had their own word for this before that. Which word did they use?
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What does Middle English "bihiȝten" mean?
What does Middle English "bihiȝten" mean?
Wycliffe's Bible (page 87)
Mk.14:11
Studylight:
"And thei herden, and ioyeden, and bihiyten to yyue hym money. And he souyt hou he schulde bitraye hym ...
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Why does vowel length of Middle English trust not match its probable Old Norse etymon traust?
It's natural to expect retention of vowel length when a word is borrowed from ON to ME, and that's indeed what happened with e. g. ME adj. lọ̄s 'free; loose' from ON lauss.
However, ME n. trust is ...
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Was Middle English or something like it spoken during the late Anglo-Saxon period?
As far as I've been able to determine from Wikipedia and Googling (I'm not a linguist), Old English appears to have changed into Middle English very soon after the Norman Conquest (around the end of ...
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What is the origin of "huge"?
What is the origin of the word huge (adj. and adv.) meaning "very great, large, or big; immense, enormous, vast"?
Both OED and Etymonline say that it might be from an Old French word which ...
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The Middle English infinitive form
Why do the Middle English words, that stay after "to" haven't got the Middle English infinitive ending "n"?
Wycliffe's Bible
Luke.16:3
Studylight:
"And the baili seide with ynne him silf, What ...
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Why the "wedded" in "wedded wife"?
Typical wedding vows, per e.g. this website, often have phrasing like this (emphasis mine):
[Groom’s name], do you take [Bride’s name] to be your wedded wife, to live together in marriage? Do you ...
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Why are "said" and "paid"/"laid" pronounced differently?
The words say, pay, lay are phonemically /seɪ/, /peɪ/ and /leɪ/ respectively (with the diphthong /eɪ/). Their past and past participles are respectively: /sɛd/ (or /sed/), /peɪd/ and /leɪd/. The past/...
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Why did some English verbs lose nasal endings?
I saw this ending in many words of Old English origin where a word has -an in Old English but then lost in Modern English.
Examples: habban, climban, sceþþan, singan, offrian etc.
I noticed another ...
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Why did "it" lose its initial 'h' but other pronouns such as "him" and "her" didn't?
The pronouns it, him, her had an initial h in the older forms of English which has been retained in her, him, but lost in it (formerly hit).
Etymology of it (Wikitionary):
From Middle English it, hit ...
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Was there a /t͡ʃ/ to /k/ sound change from Old English?
I stumbled upon a strange thing while looking up the etymology of words ending in "le". I looked up "kettle" and saw that it was pronounced with /t͡ʃ/ in Old English and also in ...
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Why did the F of "sneeze" and "snore" change to an S in English history?
The etymologies of "sneeze" and "snore" suggest that they were once pronounced with /f/. Here is what Wiktionary (from which all the following information also comes) says:
From ...
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Why did the vowel in "Christ" become long in moving from Old English to Middle English?
I have read the following question and all the answers, and they do not answer my question, so it is not a duplicate:
Why are the vowels in Christ and Christmas different? (and other strange diphthong ...
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What does the phrase "or euer" mean in Middle English from the 1500s?
What does the phrase "or euer" mean in Middle English from the 1500s?
It's often translated as "before", but I'm trying to find out specifically the cultural connotation of what ...
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Origin of describing emotions with adjectives associated with taste
You might have seen that most of the adjectives that are related to taste are used to describe emotions. It is very common. It exists in many other languages.
Salty, sour, sweet, bitter etc. We use ...
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Was there a D to TH sound change in English?
I looked up the etymology of "father" and see what Etymology Dictionary says:
Old English fæder "he who begets a child, nearest male ancestor;"
It clearly says "fæder" ...
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Deciphering two words from their Archaic spellings
I am translating the 1509, first English Translation of Sebastian Brant's The Shyp of foyls (The Ship of Fools), and came across two words which, for the life of me, I could not construe or make ...
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Is or was "too young for to marry" valid English, now or in the past?
I made a very serious effort to locate the name of this song, and to find more info on it. Sadly, I was unable to. All I have is this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWTF6nRqNvU
It ...
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Is English actually a pidgin or creole?
Because Middle English was a hodgepodge mélange of Old English (a Germanic tongue) and Norman French (a Romance language), it seems like Middle English was actually a kind of pidgin or creole.
My ...
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Singular to plural noun [duplicate]
Many nouns that end in ‑f are made plural by changing the ‑f to ‑v‑ and
adding ‑es.
+----------+-----------+
| Singular | Plural |
+----------+-----------+
| half | halves |
| leaf | ...
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Meaning of Log [long] Life from 1564?
I was reading 16th century texts with early descriptions of the Americas for a poem I am writing and came across this delightful, yet quite cryptic and arcane phrase: "log life"
but this ...
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What is Middle English for 'Hello'?
I'm writing a text that includes Death personified (e.g., "The Seventh Seal" - Bergman; Doktor Faustus - Mann) He speaks in early modern English from the time of Chaucer. I'd like to know how he would ...
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Usage of Middle English "fel it hap"
The OED entry for happen notes the following:
In Middle English fel it hap meant "it happened."
A search for the phrase reveals this OED entry and nothing else relevant. It is not clear ...
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Why are both "ye" and "you" used as subjects in Anne Bradstreet's To My Dear and Loving Husband?
As far as I know, in Middle English and Early Modern English "ye" was used for subjects and "you" for objects. Yet in "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet ...
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Why are words like "Thou" / "Thee" / "Ye" no longer used in English?
When going through old English literature, especially stories and poems, we can see they have been full of words like "thou" and "thee" and "ye".
Some of my English ...
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Why was 'Jesus' spelt 'Jhesus' in Wycliffe's Bible?
I found that in Wycliffe's Bible, Jesus Christ is spelt as "Jhesu Crist". Why was it spelt with 'Jh' instead of 'J'?
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What do we call a "manuscript expert"?
Someone (in most cases an academic) who is well-rounded in the field of ancient manuscripts, with solid training in history and/or literature, one or more ancient languages, paleography, and ...
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What was the meaning of "sometime" in Medieval England?
There are many questions here regarding "sometime" but none of them looked as if they referred to the Medieval context of the word. I was tempted to write "Middle English" instead of "Medieval England"...
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What is the difference between "if" and "ȝif"?
What is the difference between Middle English "if" and "ȝif"?
Wycliffe Bible
Mt.6:23
In accordance with studylight.org:
"...bodi shal be liytful; 23 but if thin iye be weiward, al thi bodi shal be ...
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