Middle-English Word of the Day - February 29, 2008
Meynprise (n.) - a taking by the hand, bail, security.
He synneth noght, soothliche, that so wynneth his foode.
And though he come so to a clooth, and kan no bettre chevyssaunce,
Nede anoon righte nymeth hym under maynprise.
And if hym list for to lape, the lawe of kynde wolde
That he dronke at ech dych, er he [deide for thurst].
- Langland, William: The vision of Piers Plowman (1377-1379)
Pronunciation: /maInpris@/
Key
/m/ m in make
/aI/ ai in aisle
/n/ n in no
/p/ p in pepper
/r/ r in red
/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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