Friday, October 12, 2007

Prime


Prime (n.) - a copy of the handkerchief of St. Veronica (the traditional name of the woman who wiped the Saviour's face).


The water shal aslake and goon away
Aboute pryme upon the nexte day.
But robyn may nat wite of this, thy knave,
Ne eek thy mayde gille I may nat save;

- Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury tales (1387-1394)


The Middle-English Word of the Day is selected from Mayhew and Skeat's
"Concise Dictionary of Middle English."
As found on Greg Lindahl's website
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/concise/concise.html

The example text was found at the Middle English Collection of the University of Virginia Library.
http://etext.virginia.edu/collections/languages/english/mideng.browse.html