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     [ Note from the Project Gutenberg post-processor:

     This book uses a variety of special characters, some of which are
     easily representable in a text font, some of which are not.

     A deg. (eth) and A3/4/Az (thorn/Thorn) are as-is. Yough is represented as the
     two-character sequence 3*.

     The special characters A|/A (ae/AE) do not have accented forms in
     the standard text font, so when accented have been written as A|*
     and A*.

     Long marks over Latin vowels have been marked as u*, etc.

     End-of-line hyphens present a significant problem in this book, as
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     words. For the most part these end-of-line hyphens have been joined;
     on occasion they are marked as -*.

     Greek words are transliterated using the standard Gutenberg scheme.

     Italics are marked _thus_, and boldface ~thus~.

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[Illustration]

A CONCISE DICTIONARY OF

MIDDLE ENGLISH

_MAYHEW AND SKEAT_

A CONCISE DICTIONARY OF MIDDLE ENGLISH FROM A.D. 1150 TO 1580


BY THE

REV. A. L. MAYHEW, M.A.  OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD

AND THE

REV. WALTER W. SKEAT LITT.D.; LL.D. EDIN.; M.A. OXON.  ELRINGTON AND
BOSWORTH PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

"These our Ancient Words here set down, I trust will for this time
satisfie the Reader.--R. VERSTEGAN, _Restitution of Decayed
Intelligence_, ch. vii (at the end)

"Authentic words be given, or none!"  WORDSWORTH, _Lines on
Macpherson's Ossian_


MDCCCLXXXVIII

PREFACE

(BY PROFESSOR SKEAT.)

The present work is intended to meet, in some measure, the
requirements of those who wish to make some study of Middle-English,
and who find a difficulty in obtaining such assistance as will enable
them to find out the meanings and etymologies of the words most
essential to their purpose.

The best Middle-English Dictionary, that by Dr. MAtzner of Berlin, has
only reached the end of the letter H; and it is probable that it will
not be completed for many years. The only Middle-English Dictionary
that has been carried on to the end of the alphabet is that by the
late Dr. Stratmann, of Krefeld. This is a valuable work, and is
indispensable for the more advanced student. However, the present work
will still supply a deficiency, as it differs from Stratmann's
Dictionary in many particulars. We have chosen as our Main Words,
where possible, the most typical of the forms or spellings of the
period of Chaucer and Piers Plowman; in Stratmann, on the other hand,
the form chosen as Main Word is generally the oldest form in which it
appears, frequently one of the twelfth century. Moreover, with regard
to authorities, we refer in the case of the great majority of our
forms to a few, cheap, easily accessible works, whereas Stratmann's
authorities are mainly the numerous and expensive publications of the
Early English Text Society. Lastly, we have paid special attention to
the French element in Middle-English, whereas Stratmann is somewhat
deficient in respect of words of French origin [Footnote 1: A new and
thoroughly revised edition of Stratmann's Dictionary is being prepared
by Mr. Henry Bradley, for the Delegates of the Clarendon Press.] The
book which has generally been found of most assistance to the learner
is probably Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words;
but this is not specially confined to the Middle-English period, and
the plan of it differs in several respects from that of the present
work.

The scope of this volume will be best understood by an explanation of
the circumstances that gave rise to it. Some useful and comparatively
inexpensive volumes illustrative of the Middle-English