Medieval Cookery - Middle-English Word of the Day

Middle-English Word of the Day - March 3, 2008

Mekil (adj. and adv.) - great, much, numerous.

Loo lord, such arrore amange them thei haue
It is grete sorowe to see, no seeg may it sese.
It is no menske to youre manhed that mekill, is of myght
To forbere such forfettis that falsely are feyned,
Such spites in especiall wolde be eschewed in your sight.

- Anonymous: The York plays (1440)

Pronunciation: /mEkIl/

Key
/m/ m in make
/E/ e in met
/k/ k in kin
/I/ i in bit
/l/ l in lily

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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