Questions tagged [early-modern-english]
Early Modern English was used from the late 15th century to the mid to late 17th century.
181
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What are the archaic conjugations of the verb “to thou?”
I've tried searching Google Books and unfortunately I couldn't find examples there, so I'm hoping to get some help here.
Would the following be correct as conjugations for the verb to thou?
Singular ...
4
votes
2answers
809 views
What did they use in Old English or Middle English before 'of course'?
I'm writing a story that heavily uses archaic or unusual English words, with a focus of non-Latin, non-French and non-Anglo-Norman derived words and how English might work without them.
I found very ...
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1answer
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Did the word “Crocodile” have a dreadful connotation in London 1600s?
I am writing a period-piece play based in London circa 1660s and wrote a poetic line that alludes to the crocodile as a "fearsome foe" or of much "danger and dread".
I examined every mention of the ...
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2answers
53 views
What does Meric Casaubon mean?
The below quote is from Book X, Verse 3 of Meric Casaubon's translation of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations :
But remember, that whatsoever by the strength of opinion, grounded upon a certain ...
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5answers
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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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0answers
46 views
What does “were this away” mean in this context?
I'm reading a description of the pyramids written by George Sandys (1577 - 1644). The paragraph reads:
The top at length we ascended with many pauses and much difficulty;
from whence with ...
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0answers
48 views
Can I say that sentence makes you special?
When someone comes from other country and they pronounce "good morning" in my local language (when that pronunciation is unique)... Then can I say:
"that sentence makes you special" Or "that ...
36
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3answers
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Has the verb “to import me” ever been commonly used in English the way “to concern me” is in the phrase “It does not concern me”?
In various European languages, most especially in the Romance ones, their
own respective cognates for our Latin-derived word import can be used as
a verb in much the way as the verb concern ...
4
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1answer
93 views
What's the proper antique equivalent to “Don't you dare”? [closed]
What's the proper antique (using "thee") equivalent to "Don't you dare"? Dare thee not? Dare not thee? Something else?
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1answer
191 views
thyself = yourself, what is the equivalent of *others*?
Is there a Shakespeare style of saying others?
Example:
Know yourself, know others
Know thyself, know ____
By others I mean other people in general. Could be an intended group but not enemy.
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1answer
48 views
Translating old charm to modern language
About six or seven years ago, Chattox did fall out with one Hugh Moore
of Pendle, as aforesaid, about certain cattle of Moore's, which Moore
did charge Chattox to have bewitched: for which Chattox ...
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46 views
Why “him” in “For neuer resting time leads Summer on / To hidious winter and confounds him there, …” instead of it or her?
There is a passage in William's V sonnet that confounds me :
For neuer resting time leads Summer on,
To hidious winter and confounds him there,
Sap checkt with frost and lustie leau's quite gon.
...
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3answers
481 views
Why is ‘Earth’ often spelt with a lowercase e, even when referring to the planet?
The word earth has several meanings; the most central one is ‘soil, dirt’, that thing we walk on when we’re outside. It’s also used as a name for the planet we live on.
The Lexico definition for this ...
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4answers
2k views
…down the primrose path
What is the origin of primrose used in the idiom primrose path, as defined by the Oxford Online Dictionary?
primrose path
The pursuit of pleasure, especially when it is seen to bring ...
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2answers
203 views
History of Neither Nor - Negative Meaning with Negative Verb Structure
I know that neither–nor yields a negative meaning if used in a sentence that has a positive verb structure. That is, when we say:
Neither George nor James goes to school.
we mean:
George does ...
0
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1answer
156 views
“in like manner” v. “in the like manner”
1."in like manner"
or
2."in the like manner"
I thought that the latter is correct, but more digging points to the former.
In Leviathan,of Hobbes, in like manner is used twenty five times, whereas ...
19
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3answers
3k views
What is the olden name for sideburns?
Upon search, I found out that sideburns has evolved from burnsides, named after the Civil War veteran and Rhode Island senator Ambrose Burnside. See here
But surely sideburns existed before him, so ...
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2answers
148 views
Articles before “covenant”?
As I was going through Leviathan I realized that in some places Hobbes left an article before covenant, despite not placing the word in quotation marks:
1. "God is King of all the Earth by his Power: ...
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0answers
46 views
Why there is no article before “heire”? [duplicate]
The following passage is from All's Well That Ends Well:
Shee is young, wise, faire,
In these, to Nature shee's immediate heire:
And these breed honour:
According to the research I did on Cambridge ...
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0answers
33 views
Is capitalization of the personal pronoun “I” a modern thing in English? [duplicate]
In an answer to a question I asked, the user included an extract from a text seemingly written in older English. Not Old English, but definitely older English, made evident by the fact it spelled e.g. ...
3
votes
1answer
267 views
Why do some early modern English writers use an apostrophe in art (ar't)?
For example, in Verses upon the duke of Buckinghams returne from the Ile of Rees (https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/lessons/lesson1/index.html) the poet spells "art" as "ar't" in the phrase "...
5
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1answer
184 views
What was the pronunciation of the a in “trap” in early to mid Modern English in the UK?
I have often read that in Old and Middle English the "a" sound in words like "trap" was pronouned /a/. When it comes to modern English, Wikipedia suggests that this was raised to /æ/ in early Modern ...
3
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1answer
108 views
How is “ought” used in this King James Bible verse?
There's a use of the word "ought" from the Bible I don't understand.
I've highlighted the relevant word:
Acts 4:32
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: ...
3
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1answer
129 views
Devil take the hindmost!
I came across the following old proverb in which I noticed that a bare infinitive verb is used after a singular subject.
Devil take ...
5
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2answers
678 views
What is the possessive case and the objective case of “ye?”
I know very well that archaically, "thou" is the nominative case for the modern day "you" while "thee" is the accusative case and that there is no distinction between the nominative and accusative ...
0
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1answer
178 views
Looking for a list of hapax legomena that have lost their meanings over time [closed]
These are words that have lost their meanings over time and can't be reconstructed from context, as it only appeared in that context once and not in others. I've searched with Google but came up empty....
3
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2answers
991 views
Origin of “rank hath its privileges”
It's often seen with "has," but the frequent appearance of "hath" suggests the saying may be much, much older. Early Modern English always suggests Shakespeare to me, but my Google-fu hath failed me ...
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vote
2answers
864 views
Shakespeare's Macbeth “Conduct me to (mine) host” Mine host vs My Host
The first time I heard "mine host" in Shakespeare's Macbeth, I went to Wiktionary to see if it once was used instead of "my," however, I ended up with that it should not be followed by a noun but ...
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0answers
70 views
a conditional sentence with “had + past participle” in both the apodosis and the protasis
In older texts one finds this construction, which one may be tempted to call the past conditional second form (after the example of le conditionnel passé deuxième forme):
If you had lied to me, I ...
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vote
3answers
286 views
Early Modern English: Shakespearean Insult [duplicate]
I think many are familiar with the famous line from Shakespeare:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more
temperate.
What I seek to do is keep the analogy but change ...
3
votes
1answer
632 views
Conjugation of 'shall' in Early Modern English
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the Third Witch says to Banquo: "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none" (1.3.65); if I want to quote that line and write it in the third person singular, how should I ...
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2answers
235 views
What is the meaning of 'plain' dangerous?
I watched a movie and found a line saying:
It's just plain dangerous. They carry different diseases than we do.
I am wondering what the meaning of 'plain' dangerous is?
I checked Cambridge ...
92
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4answers
13k views
Is that an “r” in “worship” in a text from 1591?
I was trying to see how the Spanish word merced was translated into English in the 16th century, when I found this entry in a dictionary from 1591 by Richard Percyvall:
I understand that the second ...
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1answer
97 views
Is there any evidence for “altercate” ever having been pronounced with stress on the second syllable?
In modern English, polysyllabic verbs ending in -ate are regularly stressed on the third-to-last syllable. (There are some (possible) exceptions, such as incarnate, impregnate, and elongate.)
But it ...
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vote
2answers
435 views
What's the meaning of 'mean for sport' in a line from the movie, “The Help”?
I watched a great movie, The Help, released in 2011 and starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, and Octavia Spencer.
In the movie, there is a scene in which there is a conversation about ...
10
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2answers
424 views
How old is the practice of hyphenating compound adjectives?
In Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part One at 1.3.230 Hotspur refers to Hal contemptuously as
that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales
At Internet Shakespeare Editions the “Modern” ...
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3answers
123 views
The meaning of the dance title “All In a Garden Green”
There is a 17th century English dance/tune named "All in a Garden Green" (first published in John Playford's The English Dancing Master in 1651).
What is the most probable exact meaning of the title? ...
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1answer
287 views
Renaissance pronunciation of “thither”: θiðr or ðiðr?
I've seen the thread on voiced/unvoiced "thither," but it doesn't quite answer the question.
It seems like maybe the word began falling out of regular speech right around the time initial "th" was ...
4
votes
1answer
526 views
Third person present and past in King James Bible
I am currently reading the Gospel According to John in a King James Version of the Bible, and I cannot understand the use of the third person singular in some of the verses:
1:38 Then Jesus turned, ...
0
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0answers
47 views
Capitalization in 18th Century English [duplicate]
I have often wondered about the (seemingly) arbitrary capitalization of words in 17th & 18th century English, and again today, came across this quote by Edmund Burke in Sylvia Nasar's Grand ...
2
votes
1answer
442 views
Meaning of “care” in “ my care is like a shadow in the sun”
In the poem “On Monsieur’s Departure” attributed to Queen Elizabeth I of England, we find this passage:
My care is like my shadow in the sun
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
Stands ...
0
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2answers
2k views
Why is it “Who be ye?” and not “Who are ye?” in archaic forms of English?
When I was looking for “ye” in a dictionary, I stumbled upon the phrase “Who be ye?”. But why is it “Who be ye?” and not “Who are ye?”? The modern equivalent of “ye” would be “you”, wouldn’t it? “Who ...
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3answers
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What is the grammar behind 'if either thee dislike'?
This sentence appears in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet':
Juliet:
My ears have yet drunk a hundred words,
Of thy tone's uttering, and yet I know the sound.
Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?
Romeo:
...
0
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2answers
583 views
'Anytime' and 'ever'
Actually I am a non native English speaker, of course I may come across many confusion but I don't care of those much,but curious some times to know about the things.
I know the meaning of 'Ever' ...
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1answer
167 views
Problem with “mine” while translating this phrase into early modern english
I'm translating a certain phrase from Japanese, and its roughly equivalent would be:
"It seems like it is my victory in this game as well"
Except for the fact the pronoun used to attribute "mine" ...
6
votes
1answer
291 views
Did 'lawyer' have a broader meaning in Shakespeare's time?
In Act 4, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Dick the butcher, one of Jack Cade's rebels, shouts:
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
The rebels bring in the clerk of ...
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3answers
3k views
Appearances and usage of “believe on” instead of “believe in.”
I am curious as to how much "believe on" has been preferred in over "believe in," and how much it has appeared in writing and manuscripts. I know the King James Bible uses it in only two books of its ...
2
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1answer
126 views
What is the meaning of “yea, marie”?
The preface to John Calvin's Sermons on Deuteronomy says this:
For sufficient proofe whereof, and to the end it should not be thought that we do wrongfully & without cause giue inkling of the ...
22
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1answer
1k views
What is the meaning of “Apcie”?
On John Calvin's Sermons on Deuteronomy, he says:
"Not that god bringeth in any newe thing here: but for that he blameth the people for their foresaid lewdness, shewing that his doctrine had ben ...
4
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1answer
261 views
Is “Be ye…” subjunctive or imperative?
In Early Modern English, the second person plural (singular) declensions were:
Nominative: - Ye (Thou)
Oblique: - You (Thee)
--and--
Genitive: Your (Thy & Thine) & Yours' (Thine)
In Language ...
