Middle-English Word of the Day - January 29, 2008
Payndemayn (n.) - best quality white bread, usually thought to derive from "panis dominis" (L. "lord's bread").
Sire thopas wax a doghty swayn;
Whit was his face as payndemayn,
His lippes rede as rose;
His rode is lyk scarlet in grayn,
And I yow telle in good certayn,
He hadde a semely nose.
- Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury tales (1387-1394)
Pronunciation: /paIndEmaIn/
Key
/p/ p in pepper
/aI/ ai in aisle
/n/ n in no
/d/ d in dog
/E/ e in met
/m/ m in make
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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