Middle-English Word of the Day - October 25, 2007
Derf (adj.) - brave, powerful, difficult, hard.
Miles 2: So late lede hym belyve and lenge her no lenger,
To ser Pilate oure prince oure pride will we prayse.
Miles 3: Yoa, he may synge or he slepe of sorowe and angir,
For many derfe dedes he has done in his dayes.
Miles 4: Now wightly late wende on oure wayes,
Late vs trusse vs, no tyme is to tarie.
- Anonymous: The York plays (1440)
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
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