Medieval Cookery - Middle-English Word of the Day

Middle-English Word of the Day - February 15, 2008

Lissien (v.) - to ease (the noun "lisse" means ease, rest, joy, or happiness).

So as thou seist, for thin aprise
To hiere of suche thinges wise,
Wherof thou myht the time lisse,
So as I can, I schal the wisse:

- Gower, John: Confessio amantis (1390-1393)

Pronunciation: /lis@/

Key
/l/ l in lily
/i/ i in machine
/s/ s in hiss
/@/ a in sofa

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/

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