Anglo-Latin Wordbook: About

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This wordbook is a compilation of the Latin vocabulary glossed in the Bristol (1997), Cambridge (1989), Cheshire (2007), Cornwall (1999), Dorset (1999), Ecclesiastical London (2008), Herefordshire (1990), Inns of Court (2010), Kent: Diocese of Canterbury (2002), Lancashire (1991), Lincolnshire (2009), Oxford (2004), Shropshire (1994), Somerset (1996), Sussex (2000), Wales (2005), and Worcestershire (1990) collections. In the Lincolnshire glossary, words beginning with A-L were prepared by Abigail Ann Young and ones beginning with M-Z were prepared by Patrick Gregory, based in both cases on this wordlist through Ecclesiastical London. Eventually the Latin vocabulary for collections prior to Cambridge will be integrated into this compilation and the entire wordlist checked and revised by the use of concordances to the various collections. Words are now included in the Latin Glossaries printed in REED collections if they are not to be found in the Oxford Latin Dictionary (OLD) or if their classical meaning has changed or become restricted in medieval or Renaissance usage. Special attention has been paid to the terminology of drama, music, and pastimes. This represents a change from the selection criteria of the earliest printed glossaries: our selection criteria had to change when the OLD superseded Lewis and Short as the standard reference dictionary for Classical Latin. In the final version of the compilation, the OLD will be used as the sole criterion for inclusion.

If a word is found in the OLD, but appears in the text in an obscure spelling or anomalous inflectional form for which the OLD provides no cross-reference, that word has been included and its standard lexical entry form indicated, without giving a definition. If the spelling variants or anomalous inflectional forms have been treated as scribal errors and more correct forms given in textual notes, the forms thus noted are not repeated here. But most of the Latin words used in the records are common classical words whose spelling has changed, if at all, according to common medieval variations. The results of these common variations are not treated here as new words, nor are forms of glossed words resulting from such variations treated as variant spellings. These variations are:

ML c for CL t before i
ML cc for CL ct before i
ML d for CL t in a final position
ML e for CL ae or oe
ML ff for CL f, common in an initial position
ML addition of h
ML omission of CL h
ML variation between i and e before another vowel
ML n for CL m before another nasal
Intrusion of ML p in CL consonant clusters mm, mn, ms, or mt
ML doubling of CL single consonants
ML singling of CL double consonants

No attempt has been made to correct these spellings to classical norms; rather, scribal practice has been followed in such cases. Where the same word occurs in spellings that differ according to the list above, the most common spelling (or the earliest, when numbers of occurrences are roughly equal) is treated as standard and used for the headword. Because the most common spelling varies from collection to collection, for the purpose of this compilation I have used ML ‘c’ before ‘i’ in headforms by convention, except in consonant clusters like ‘cti’ or ‘pti’ cluster, where the CL ‘t’ has been used. If the usage of different collections varied for single and double consonants, the most etymologically appropriate form has been used as the headform. In accordance with OLD practice, variation in the spelling of certain borrowed vocabulary like ‘ebdomada’ (or ‘hebdomada’) is indicated by ‘(h)’ in headforms and the presence of radical ‘c’ and ‘s’ in words compounded with ‘ex’ is indicated by ‘(c)’ and ‘(s)’ in headforms. We have conformed to the practice of the OLD as regards ‘i/j’ and ‘u/v’ variation: in this glossary only the letter forms ‘i’ and ‘u’ are used. If a noun of the first declension appears only in documents whose scribes consistently used classical orthography, its genitive singular is listed as ‘-ae’; otherwise the ML ‘-e’ is used. In headwords, either the ML ‘e’ or the CL ‘ae’ (or even ‘(a)e’) may appear, depending on the orthographic variations of the different collections. Users should therefore check under both possible spellings. All listed variant spellings will be found under the headword, at the end of the definition, set apart in boldface type. Where the variant spelling would not closely follow the headword alphabetically, it is also listed separately and cross-referenced to the main entry. Manuscript capitalization has not been preserved; however, if proper names are glossed, they are capitalized in accordance with modern usage. Half-brackets used in the text to indicate insertions, and italics used to indicate expansions, are ignored.

The glossaries include words found in records printed or quoted in the Records, Introduction, Appendixes, and Endnotes of their respective volumes. Definitions are given only for those senses of a particular word which are used in the records printed in these collections. In any given collection, every sense of a given word that occurs in that collection will be given if any sense needs to be listed. However, in this compilation it has not been practical to include every sense from every collection of every word that has been noticed in a post-CL form in a particular collection. So the lack of listed page numbers from a particular collection for a particular CL word does not necessarily imply that the word does not appear in those collections, only that, if it occurs, it occurs only in CL senses. Occasionally a proper noun appears in the glossary, eg, ‘Andreas’ or ‘Maria’, because of a particular special usage but no attempt is made to indicate every occurrence of that name in its normal usage. More attention has been paid in recent collections to post-CL usage of common prepositions and such usage is not noticed for all collections, however, I do intend at some future point to go back over previous collections to add to the articles on such prepositions as ‘ad’ or ‘per’.

For every word, sense, and variant recorded the glossary cites the earliest example occurring in each collection but because of the arrangement of county collections, the first occurrence chronologically may not necessarily be the first occurrence in page order. Therefore the other occurrence(s) indicated by ‘etc’ may in fact precede the first occurrence in page order in a given collection. Page order has only been used if there are two earliest occurrences in different documents assigned to the same year. In such cases, the occurrence that also appears earliest in page order is given. If a glossed word occurs twice in a single line, superscript numerals are used after the line number to distinguish the occurrences. Within references, page and line numbers are separated by an oblique stroke. Words occurring within marginalia are indicated by a lower-case ‘m’ following the page and line reference. Words occurring within collation notes are indicated by a lower-case ‘c’ following the page and line reference to which the collation note applies. Page and line references are preceded by a letter or letters differentiating the collections: BR (Bristol), C (Cambridge), CH (Cheshire), CR (Cornwall), DR (Dorset), EL (Ecclesiastical London), H (Herefordshire), EK (Kent: Diocese of Canterbury), IC (Inns of Court), L (Lancashire), LI (Lincolnshire), OX (Oxford), SH (Shropshire), SM (Somerset), SX (Sussex), WL (Wales), and W (Worcestershire).

It is difficult to know in some cases whether certain words are being used in a CL sense or in one of the modified senses acquired in Anglo-Latin usage during the Middle Ages. In these circumstances, the range of possibilities has been fully indicated under the appropriate lexical entry. (When it seems useful to indicate the possibility that a given sense was intended in a given passage, even if no certainty exists, a ‘?’ is added after the appropriate page and line reference under that sense.) Unclear, technical, or archaic terms, especially those pertaining to canon or common law, performance, and music, are usually given a stock translation equivalent but receive a fuller treatment in the glossary.

As a rule, only one occurrence of each word, or each sense or form of each word, will be listed; ‘etc’ following a reference means that there is at least one more occurrence of that word, sense, or form in the collection. The one occurrence listed is either the sole occurrence or the first chronologically. Multiple occurrences of each sense may be listed for words defined in more than one sense; in fact all possible occurrences of a given sense may be listed if it is difficult to distinguish the senses in context.

All headwords are given in a standard dictionary form: nouns are listed by nominative, genitive, and gender; adjectives by the terminations of the nominative singular or, in the case of adjectives of one termination, by the nominative and genitive; verbs by their principal parts.

A slightly unusual situation was created by the extensive use in some Inns of Court appendix texts of fictive Latin names, sometimes relying on multi-lingual roots or involving multi-lingual puns. Although these names often appear in otherwise English contexts, they have been glossed here when they are not composed of words or names found in the OLD or explained within the documents in which they occur.