Call for Anglo-Norman papers

Call for Papers:

Anglo-Norman Texts, Language and Contexts

The Anglo-Norman Dictionary (www.anglo-norman.net) is interested in sponsoring a session or series of sessions at the Leeds International Medieval Congress 2014 (see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/) devoted to new research on Anglo-Norman texts and their contexts. We will present papers on the subject, but are looking for further contributors.
We are particularly interested in hearing about new texts, new editions of texts, and texts that fall outside of the literary context. Paper topics could include, but are not limited to:

the use of Anglo-Norman in literary and non-literary contexts
the intended audience of Anglo-Norman texts throughout the medieval period
the transmission of Anglo-Norman texts
the revision, annotation or translation of Anglo-Norman texts
the inclusion of Anglo-Norman with texts in other languages
the manuscript context of Anglo-Norman works
the use of Anglo-Norman outside England

If you are interested, please contact us, the session organizers, at anglonormandictionary@gmail.com by September 15 2013, with a short summary of your proposal.

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

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...

blog migration

The Anglo-Norman Dictionary blog has now been incorporated in its entirety into the main AND website: https://anglo-norman.net/blog/

Word of the Month: Anglo-Norman Sweetmeats

At this time of year, our thoughts turn to Christmas foods – particularly to sweets and confections. A search of the use of the term ‘sweetmeat’ in the AND2 (one can search the translations or glosses in the dictionary from the homepage) shows that an international array of sugary goods was available in medieval England. For those unfamiliar with the English term, sweetmeat is used to describe any kind of confectionary – candied fruit, nuts etc. – nothing ‘meaty’ involved despite the name – ‘meat’ is used here in the original sense of ‘food’ and not ‘flesh’. This should not be confused with the similar sounding sweetbread – which is definitely neither sweet nor bread! Even the OED can’t explain that one! Confection was the general term used in Anglo-Norman for any compound preparation – a mixture which included a number of ingredients. It was also used as a term for preserves, a mixture of fruit and sugar. From the Latin confectio , the word is attested in Middle English ...

Anglo-Norman words

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