Medieval Cookery - Middle-English Word of the Day

Middle-English Word of the Day - February 27, 2008

Meyne (n.) - household, retinue, train, company.

Allas, so wilsom wightis as we
Was neuere in worlde walkand in wede,
Oure maistir sais his awne meyn
Has betrayed hym to synfull seede.

- Anonymous: The York plays (1440)

Pronunciation: /maIn@/

Key
/m/ m in make
/aI/ ai in aisle
/n/ n in no
/@/ 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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