A Bundle of Ballads - LightNovelsOnl.com
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Lere: face. First English - hleor. See Robin Hood - "fell down by his lere."
Let: hinder. Letting: hindrance.
Lewte: loyalty.
Lift: sky.
Linde: lime-tree.
Linn: torrent; also the pool under a torrent of water.
Lithe: listen. Icelandic - alyoa, to listen.
Liveray: what is 'livre,' or delivered, as a 'livree' of clothes, food, etc.
Lodge: dwelling in a forest, as originally made of boughs and leaves.
Lough: laughed.
Lourdain: blockhead.
Lown: loon, dull, base fellow.
Makis: husbands.
Male: bag.
Manople: a large gauntlet protecting hand and fore-arm.
March parti: border side.
Masars: bowls or goblets.
May: maid.
Meany: meynie: body of retainers, or domestic following.
Meet: narrow. First English - maete, little.
Met: mete: measured.
Mister: need.
Mo: more.
Mort: the note sounded at death of the deer.
Mote I thee: May I thrive. First English - theon, to thrive.
Mote: meeting for decision of cases in ecclesiastical or civil law, or for other public purposes, as ward-mote, etc. Strong men were said to oppress the weak by being "mighty to mote."
Nicher: neigh.
Numbles: liver, kidneys, etc. French - nombles. The word was often written in English umbles and humbles. The umbles, with skin, head, chine, and shoulders of the deer, were the keepers' share in the brittling. There was a receipt for "umble pie" in the old cookery. To "eat humble pie"
was to dine with the servants instead of from the haunch at the high table.
Okerer: usurer.
Pace: pa.s.s.
Pay: satisfaction. The old sense of the word in the phrase "it does not pay"--does not give satisfaction. A man could be served "to his pay," meaning in a way that satisfied or pleased him.
Pieces: drinking-cups.
Pluck-buffet: whichever made a bad shot drew on himself a buffet from his compet.i.tor.
Prest: ready. Prestly: readily. French - pret.
Prief: proof.
Proseyla: Venus' sh.e.l.ls, porcelain.
Pye: coat a py: a rough coa.r.s.e cloth. Dutch - py, or a coat made from it. The word remains in our "pea-coat."
Quarry: the skin of the deer on which entrails, etc. were piled as the dogs' share of the spoil. French - cuiree, from cuir, hide.
To be distinguished from the quarry, a square bolt for the crossbow, or the quarry or squared stones, both from Latin - quadratus.
Quh: = Wh.
Quite: requite.
Ray: striped cloth.
Raikand: ranging.
Rawe: row.
Rede: counsel.
Reve: plunder.
Room: s.p.a.ce or s.p.a.cious. "The warldis room," the s.p.a.ce of the world; or "The warld is room," the world is wide.
Salved: saluted.
Scheuch and syke: furrow and rill.
Seid: seed.
Shaw: covert of the wood.
Shear: in different directions. First English - sciran, to divide.
Shend: blame; shent: blamed.
Shete: shoot.
Shot-window: according to Ritson, is a window that opens and shuts.
Sicker and sad: sure and firm.
Sigh-clout: sieve-cloth.
Somers: sumpter horses.
Spleen, on the: in anger or discontent. The spleen was once supposed to be the seat of anger and discontent.
Spurn: strife, as a kicking against. "That tear began this spurn,"
that rent began this strife.
Stalworthy: stalwart.
Stound: s.p.a.ce of time.
Stour: conflict.
Stown: stolen.
Suar: heavy. First English - swaer.
Tarpe: probably a misprint for targe. In the Promptorium Parvulorum we have the "Targe, or chartyr--carta."
Tene: vexation, sorrow.
Thee, mote I: may I thrive. See Mote.
Threap: argue back pertinaciously.
Throw: s.p.a.ce of time.
Tine: lose.
Tirled: twirled.
To-broke: "to" is intensive.
Told: counted.
Tone: the tone = that one, as the tother = that other; "that"
being the old neuter of "the."
Tray: surly, unwillingly. Icelandic - thra, obstinate. First English - thrafian, to blame.
Tynde: horns of hart.
Unketh: unknown, unexpected.
Unneth: not easily.
Voided: quitted the place.
Wap: throw quickly.
Weal: twist.
Wed: pledge.
Weird: fate.
Well away: wo, alas, wo! First English - wa, eala, wa!
Welt them: tumbled them over. First English waeltan, to roll or tumble.
Wight: a being.
Wite: wete: weet: know.
Wone: crowd.
Wonning wan: where is thy, in what direction is thy home? "Wan" is an adverbial affix with the sense of Latin versus.
Wood: wode: mad.
Woolward: clothed only in wool.
Wough: "wo and wough." First English - wo, wa, the cry of lament for evil. Wough, First English - woh, is the evil done; the first sense of the word is a swerving from the right line, then wrong and evil.
Y- and I- as prefix = the participial prefix ge- (g being p.r.o.nounced like y before the weak vowel e). So y-dight: y-granted: y-slaw: I-nocked.
Yede: yode: First English - eode, went.
