---

Middle-English Word of the Day - April 10, 2008

Forpyned (adj.) - tormented, famished, wretched.

Now certeinly he was a fair prelaat;
He was nat pale as a forpyned goost.
A fat swan loved he best of any roost.
His palfrey was as broun as is a berye.

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

Pronunciation: /fErfOrT/

Key
/f/ f in fifty
/O/ o in cloth
/r/ r in red
/p/ p in pepper
/I/ i in bit
/n/ n in no
/E/ e in met
/d/ d in dog

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

The approximate pronunciation is determined using Carol Hamill's Middle English Pronunciation Guide
and noted using upon the ASCII-IPA Standard
http://www.island.net/~hamill/medieval/mepronunc.html
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/

---

The Middle-English Word of the Day is automatically distributed Monday through Friday.

To subscribe, send email to mewd-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

© Copyright 2008 Medieval Cookery

---