Skip to main content

Words of the Month: Noef! Novel!

Image
By
The Nativity in the Bedford Hours: London, British Library, MS Additional 18850, f. 65r. - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/12/a-royal-gift-for-christmas.html#sthash.0F4dY9c5.dpuf

It may be a little early for Noel, but already offer you a present in the shape of a novel version of the dictionary: we have proceeded not only with the online publication of the second edition of the letter N – from naal to nuus – but also with the introduction of some entirely new functionalities.

Work on the letter N in the course of 2013 coincided with a novation (‘the alteration of a contract to include a new person’), that is the inclusion of Katariina Nära to the project team. She has been working, since April, on the addition of a new feature now part of AND#2: an entirely new section at the top of the article (just below the headword and variant forms) provides live links and/or references to other relevant dictionaries. These will assist users wishing to explore the word as defined in etymological dictionaries of French (FEW, DEAF), in dictionaries of Old, Middle and Modern French (Godefroy, Tobler-Lommatsch, DMF, TLF), in dictionaries of Middle and Modern English (MED, OED),and in the dictionary of medieval Latin in Britain (DMLBS). This information will help situating the Anglo-Norman word in question within its wider linguistic context. Currently these links are already available for entries beginning with H, I, J, and K as well as the brand new N, and the coverage will gradually expand to the rest of AND#2.




In perusing the new N-entries, you will also notice a second novelty: the addition of a ‘commentary’ section at the top of selected entries. These allow the editorial team to provide additional information about the entry in question, ranging from etymological information, references to articles discussing the word, or an explanation why certain forms or definitions have been used. For example, in the entry novelerie, Geert De Wilde explains why he disagrees with the definition provided by the FEW and favours a different one.


We hope you enjoy the new features of the dictionary (there are more innovations to come!) as much as the availability of the second edition of N. We would love to hear your feedback, either here or through our facebook page, on whether you find that these new functionalities are useful to the dictionary user, whether they are presented in an clear way, whether they font la nove sause pire du prime!

 (HP)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WoM: Anglo-Norman at the inn (Manières de Langage)

By
– Syre, ou pensez vous chivacher anoet? – Sire, a la prochene ville, si Dieu plest. – Sire, que l’apellez la prochyin ville? – Sire, l’apellent Oxone, verement. [...] – Ore, sire, ou serromes loggez quaunt nous voignomes la? – Syre, a le Molyn sur le hope en la rewe de Northyate est le meillour hostelle d’icelle ville come je suppose ( Man Lang ANTS 71.1-23) ( ‘Sir, where do you intend to ride tonight?’ – ‘Sir, to the next town, God permitting’ – ‘Sir, what do you call it, the next town?’ – ‘Sir, they call it Oxford, to be sure’ [...] ‘Well, Sir, where will we stay when we get there?’ ‘Sir, at [the inn with] the sign of the Mill in Northgate Street – it is, in my view, the best hostel of this town’ ) A genuine Anglo-Norman conversation between travellers sorting out their accommodation for the night? Or is this a polite exchange between two itinerant knights, excerpted from some epic romance? Perhaps, the setting of the scene for a fabliaux?  Then again, the somew
1 comment
Read more

Word of the month: Nice! An Anglo-Norman insult.

By
English speakers may be surprised to learn that the etymology of nice is not very nice at all and that its semantic development is unparalleled in the Romance languages. This word, which style guides recommend that you avoid as it both ubiquitous and nearly devoid of all meaning, has a most complicated semantic evolution. The word nice is attested quite early in French – ca 1160 and has its roots in the Latin nescius , an adjective meaning ‘ignorant, unknowing’. [1] The word was used in French (and other Romance languages) in Middle English (c. 1400) to disparage people, actions and sayings as silly or foolish. This is the meaning the word retained in the Romance languages, though in French the word is rather uncommon today though you may find it in some older texts to refer to someone as simple or naive, such as those the TLF cites: Un brave homme, un peu nice, appelé Monthyon   ( Pommier, Colères, 1844 , p.66) The semantic development of the word nice  in English is a rat
3 comments
Read more

Word of the month: nuncheon

By
It is mid-afternoon and the editorial team of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary is producing XML files of the latest batch of new entries for N-. They have been sitting in front of their computers and processing the data for about six hours now, and their typing fingers are noticeably slowing down. It is still too early to call it a day, but minds are inevitably beginning to wander. Fortunately, a resolution for the growing three-o’clock malaise is found in the Oxford English Dictionary under the word ‘ nuncheon ’, that is, ‘a drink taken in the afternoon; a light refreshment between meals; a snack’. ‘Nuncheon’ is a word labelled as archaic or regional – the sort of vocabulary encountered in nineteenth-century novels: Sir Walter Scott still wrote ‘I came to get my four-hours’ nunchion from you’ in his novel Fortunes Of Nigel (1822), and in Charlotte Mary Yonge’s Love and Life (1880) a sister tells her siblings ‘I will give you some bread and cheese and gingerbread for noonchin ’.
Post a Comment
Read more