English words first attested in Chaucer
Encyclopedia
English words first attested in Chaucer are a set of about two thousand English words that Geoffrey Chaucer
is credited as being the first use found today in existing manuscripts. This does not mean that he was the person to introduce these words into English, but that the earliest extant uses of these words are found in Chaucerian manuscripts. The words were already in everyday speech in 14th century England (especially London) and other parts of Europe. The claim is that these words are found for the first time in written manuscripts where he introduced them in one of his extensive works from 1374 - 1400 as the first author to use these particular words. Many of Chaucer's special manuscript words from the 14th century are used today:
absent, accident, add, agree, bagpipe, border, box, cinnamon, desk, digestion, dishonest, examination, finally, flute, funeral, galaxy, horizon, infect, ingot, latitude, laxative, miscarry, nod, obscure, observe, outrageous, perpendicular, Persian, princess, resolve, rumour, scissors, session, snort, superstitious, theatre, trench, universe, utility, vacation, Valentine, veal, village, vulgar, wallet, and wildness.
of Chaucer's special manuscript words and references the Middle English Dictionary
(MED) definitions and etymology of each of these words. He points out that the MED does not give details on the etymology of many of Chaucer's derived words, including many compounds, some participial adjective
s, and most gerunds. Cannon also points out that, while the Oxford English Dictionary
lists Chaucer as the first cited author of these words, it also is mostly silent on the etymologies of these particular derived words. Cannon furnishes a complete list of Chaucer's special manuscript words with their etymology.
Historian Albert Baugh points out that some of Chaucer's aureate words came from Latin or French origin. Some of Chaucer's aureate words like laureate, mediation, and oriental eventually became a part of everyday English. Baugh points out that the innovations of word development into common speech and everyday usage, such as these Chaucer words, is of considerable interest in the history of style.
and other of his publications as shown below, were published in the 14th century.
is a collection of tales written sometime after 1373, with 'sondry folk' that resemble Boccaccio's stories of The Decameron
of fleeing nobles.
acate, affile, alight, ambler, army, arrive, bagpipe, begster, borax, bourdon, bracer, bream, cape, ceruse, chape, clasp, cordial, dagger, debtless, digestible, dormant, Flandrish, foot-mantle, foster, gaud, hostelry, householder, in, jingle, knob, licentiate, line, luce, magic, magician, marrowbone, mercenary, miscarry, moral, pardoner, parvis, patent, perse, session, significavit, stew, wallet, whistling
. The word "quite" here means to make repayment for a service - telling stories.
almagest, bragget, chant, cinnamon, fart, forge, haunch-bone, interrogation, keek, kneading, kneading-trough, lab, mislie, out, pearl, Pilate, piping, shelf, slumber, swive, tub, very, vere, watchet
is about a manager of a large estate who made large profits. This tale is based on Boccaccio's sixth story in The Decameron.
bodkin, bolt, chime, derere, easement, grass time, halfway, jossa, messuage, mullock, popper, quack, sack, Sheffield, thick and thin, varnish
The Cook's Tale is a tale of an apprentice named Perkins who is fond of drinking and dancing. He ultimately is released from his master and moves in with a friend. This friend's wife is a prostitute. The story becomes more 'seedy', continuing the downward trend of the preceding tales.
bribe, convertible, galliard, Harry, Hodge,
louke, prenticehood
constabless, crone, dilatation, erect, femininity, feminity, man of law, mortally, motive, muse, peace, seriously, victorious, wrack
annex, ascendant, ba, bum, bumble, caterwaul, chose, disfigure, Ecclesiast, inclination, lure, Martian, peace, preamble, preambulation, resemblance, reveller, sip, spaniel, squire, stubborn, taur, vacation
.
approver, bribe, bribery, determinate, flattering, foal, rebeck
acceptable, chirt, dagon, demoniac, demonstrative, Dives
, equally, pismire, reverberation, spence, swarm, tip, trip
, a young woman whose husband tests her loyalty.
amble, archwife, Chichevache, constant, dishonest, frowning, gaze, laureate, marquisess, mazedness, proem
's Decameron
seventh day in his ninth tale. Chaucer's tale is a sexually explicit story.
a-noon, arc, bedstraw, brotelness, court-man,
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
is credited as being the first use found today in existing manuscripts. This does not mean that he was the person to introduce these words into English, but that the earliest extant uses of these words are found in Chaucerian manuscripts. The words were already in everyday speech in 14th century England (especially London) and other parts of Europe. The claim is that these words are found for the first time in written manuscripts where he introduced them in one of his extensive works from 1374 - 1400 as the first author to use these particular words. Many of Chaucer's special manuscript words from the 14th century are used today:
absent, accident, add, agree, bagpipe, border, box, cinnamon, desk, digestion, dishonest, examination, finally, flute, funeral, galaxy, horizon, infect, ingot, latitude, laxative, miscarry, nod, obscure, observe, outrageous, perpendicular, Persian, princess, resolve, rumour, scissors, session, snort, superstitious, theatre, trench, universe, utility, vacation, Valentine, veal, village, vulgar, wallet, and wildness.
Etymology
Christopher Cannon, in The Making of Chaucer's English, gives a complete detailed work on the etymologyEtymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of Chaucer's special manuscript words and references the Middle English Dictionary
Middle English Dictionary
The Middle English Dictionary is a dictionary of Middle English published by the University of Michigan. "Its 15,000 pages offer a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500, based on the analysis of a collection of over three million citation slips, the largest collection...
(MED) definitions and etymology of each of these words. He points out that the MED does not give details on the etymology of many of Chaucer's derived words, including many compounds, some participial adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, and most gerunds. Cannon also points out that, while the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
lists Chaucer as the first cited author of these words, it also is mostly silent on the etymologies of these particular derived words. Cannon furnishes a complete list of Chaucer's special manuscript words with their etymology.
Historian Albert Baugh points out that some of Chaucer's aureate words came from Latin or French origin. Some of Chaucer's aureate words like laureate, mediation, and oriental eventually became a part of everyday English. Baugh points out that the innovations of word development into common speech and everyday usage, such as these Chaucer words, is of considerable interest in the history of style.
List
Below is a complete list of the 1977 Chaucer's special manuscript words that are first found in the existing manuscripts below as listed in the Oxford English Dictionary as being the first cited author. Some now have different spellings and others are given the "root" word definition. Some of these words are now dated or obsolete. These manuscript words first found written in Chaucer's work, from The Canterbury TalesThe Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
and other of his publications as shown below, were published in the 14th century.
Canterbury Tales General Prologue
The Canterbury TalesThe Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
is a collection of tales written sometime after 1373, with 'sondry folk' that resemble Boccaccio's stories of The Decameron
The Decameron
The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....
of fleeing nobles.
acate, affile, alight, ambler, army, arrive, bagpipe, begster, borax, bourdon, bracer, bream, cape, ceruse, chape, clasp, cordial, dagger, debtless, digestible, dormant, Flandrish, foot-mantle, foster, gaud, hostelry, householder, in, jingle, knob, licentiate, line, luce, magic, magician, marrowbone, mercenary, miscarry, moral, pardoner, parvis, patent, perse, session, significavit, stew, wallet, whistling
The Miller's Tale
The Miller's Tale is told by a drunken miller to "quite" (requite) The Knight's TaleThe Knight's Tale
"The Knight's Tale" is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The story introduces many typical aspects of knighthood such as courtly love and ethical dilemmas. The story is written in iambic pentameter end-rhymed couplets.-Story:...
. The word "quite" here means to make repayment for a service - telling stories.
almagest, bragget, chant, cinnamon, fart, forge, haunch-bone, interrogation, keek, kneading, kneading-trough, lab, mislie, out, pearl, Pilate, piping, shelf, slumber, swive, tub, very, vere, watchet
The Reeve's Tale
The Reeve's TaleThe Reeve's Tale
"The Reeve's Tale" is the third story told in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The reeve, named Oswald in the text, is the manager of a large estate who reaped incredible profits for his master and himself. He is described in the Tales as skinny and bad-tempered. The Reeve had once been...
is about a manager of a large estate who made large profits. This tale is based on Boccaccio's sixth story in The Decameron.
bodkin, bolt, chime, derere, easement, grass time, halfway, jossa, messuage, mullock, popper, quack, sack, Sheffield, thick and thin, varnish
The Cook's Tale
bribe, convertible, galliard, Harry, Hodge,
louke, prenticehood
The Man of Law's Tale
The Man of Law's Tale is a story about a Christian princess named Constance. She is to marry a Syrian Sultan on condition that he convert to Christianity. His mother gets involved and sets her adrift at sea.constabless, crone, dilatation, erect, femininity, feminity, man of law, mortally, motive, muse, peace, seriously, victorious, wrack
The Wife of Bath's Tale
The Wife of Bath's Tale is a tale about marriage. Scholars have associated this story as one of the so-called "marriage group" of Chaucer tales.annex, ascendant, ba, bum, bumble, caterwaul, chose, disfigure, Ecclesiast, inclination, lure, Martian, peace, preamble, preambulation, resemblance, reveller, sip, spaniel, squire, stubborn, taur, vacation
The Friar's Tale
The Friar's Tale is a satirical attack on the profession as a summonerSummoner
Summoner Early 2000s English Rock/Metal Band.Summoner usually refers to one who performs supernatural conjuration.Summoner or The Summoner may also refer to:...
.
approver, bribe, bribery, determinate, flattering, foal, rebeck
The Summoner's Tale
The Summoner's Tale is a tale in defense of the satirical attack by the Friar.acceptable, chirt, dagon, demoniac, demonstrative, Dives
Lazarus and Dives
The Parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a well known parable of Jesus which appears in one of the Four Gospels of the New Testament....
, equally, pismire, reverberation, spence, swarm, tip, trip
The Clerk's Tale
The Clerk's Tale is the story of GriseldaGriselda (folklore)
Griselda is a figure from certain folklores whose name is eponymous for patience and obedience.In the tale as written by Giovanni Boccaccio, Griselda marries Gualtieri, the Marquis of Saluzzo. He tests her by declaring that their first child—a daughter—must be put to death, likewise their second...
, a young woman whose husband tests her loyalty.
amble, archwife, Chichevache, constant, dishonest, frowning, gaze, laureate, marquisess, mazedness, proem
The Merchant's Tale
The Merchant's Tale reflects BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
's Decameron
The Decameron
The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....
seventh day in his ninth tale. Chaucer's tale is a sexually explicit story.
a-noon, arc, bedstraw, brotelness, court-man,