Contents

« Prev TREATMENT OF WORDS Next »

TREATMENT OF WORDS

Personally I should have preferred to retain all the words which Misyn employs, in the hope that some would find their way back into our too much latinized English; but I feared to outweary the patience of the reader. The following is a list of those which I have altered in the text, with their nearest modern equivalents.

addling to earning
aseth satisfaction
bolnes puffs up
chinche miser
fagiar, faged flatterer, flattered
fliting reproof
forthink repent
foyd pledge
groching grumbling
groundly from the root
inhiry inward or inner
lat behave
large generous
leman beloved
loving, lufing praise
menged, melled mingled
ugg abhor
undirlowt overcome
unneth scarcely
sam together
scrithe glide
sparples scatter
tityst soonest
wode, wodeness mad, madness
well to wither

I have kept words which are of common occurrence in the Bible and Prayer Book, and those still in use in Scotland. There are, however, some words which remain in modern English but which have altered or restricted their meaning. Such are very apt to mislead the modern reader. I have, therefore, treated them freely, retaining them when in a modern sense or when their meaning is quite apparent, but changing them if the meaning is at all ambiguous. I append here a full list of these, to avoid the multiplication of footnotes.

Misyn often uses “withouten” for “without,” for the sake of rhythm, and in this I have followed him; nor have I taken upon myself to suppress his constant repetition of “truly,” “forsooth,” “doubtless,” “certain,” “sickerly.” Sometimes these translate the Latin vero, valde, certe, etc., but more often than not stand for an ordinary conjunction, such as enim, namque, autem. O.E.D. against a word in the footnote signifies that the actual word or phrase found in Misyn is quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Where the meaning is obscure I have altered:

against to towards
avoid make void
barely utterly
beholding contemplating, or considering
busily continually
charge care, consider
cherish allure
deadly, deadliness mortal, mortality
drawn to cleave (L. adhaerere)
emonge in the meantime
herefore hence
honily honeyed, honey-sweet
ill evil
kind nature, essence
lasts perseveres
liking delight, pleasure
lovely lovable
longs languishes
lust pleasure
manner measure
mind memory
namely especially
plainly entirely, altogether (L. penitus)
rots, unable to rot corrupts, incorruptible
softly little by little, slowly
soundly with sweet sound, songful
stands continues
swells inflates
show declare
taken received
taught imbued
thinking meditating, or meditation
use enjoy, exercise
wanting lacking
wherefore whence
withhold hold to, retain
worship honour
wretchedness wickedness
« Prev TREATMENT OF WORDS Next »
VIEWNAME is workSection