Medieval Cookery - Middle-English Word of the Day

Middle-English Word of the Day - January 11, 2008

Beme (n.) - trumpet.

Ofte tourneth for tene & on the toun thynketh
Whan schadewes & schir day scheden attwynne
Leuerockes vpon lofte lyften her steuenes
Burnes busken hem out of bedde with bemes loude
Bothe blowyng on bent & on the burwe walles
Waspasian bounys of bedde busked hym fayr
Fram the fote to the fourche in fyne gold clothes
Suth putteth the prince

- The siege of Jerusalem (1390-1400)

Pronunciation: /beIm@/

Key
/b/ b in boy
/eI/ a in mate, day
/m/ m in make
/@/ 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/

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

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