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Middle-English Word of the Day - January 2, 2008

Fnesen (v.) - to breathe hard, to sneeze.

For, were it wyn, or oold or moysty ale,
That he hath dronke, he speketh in his nose,
And fneseth aste, and eek he hath the pose.
He hath also to do moore than ynough
To kepen hym and his capul out of the slough;

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

Pronunciation: /fnEsEn/

Key
/f/ f in fifty
/n/ n in no
/E/ e in met
/s/ s in hiss

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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