Medieval Cookery - Middle-English Word of the Day

Middle-English Word of the Day - March 17, 2008

Dilatacioun (n.) - extension, diffuseness.

For in this wo I may nat longe endure.
What nedeth gretter dilatacioun?
I seye, by tretys and embassadrie,
And by the popes mediacioun,

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

Pronunciation: /dilAtAsiOn/

Key
/d/ d in dog
/i/ i in machine
/l/ l in lily
/A/ a in father
/t/ t in tie
/s/ s in hiss
/O/ o in cloth
/n/ n in no

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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