Lmst

sunn-stede, m.n: a solstice. (SUNN-STED-uh / ˈsʌn-ˌstɛ-də)
Image: Diagram of the solstices and equinoxes; England, late 12th century; Walters Art Museum, W.73.3R.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

A circular diagram in a medieval manuscript with concentric circles in red, nine circles labeled ‘sol’, with various arcs and lines labelled in Latin.

cūða, m.n: one known, an acquaintance, a familiar friend, a relation. (KOO-tha / ˈkuː-θa)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

frēot, m.n: (legally sanctioned) freedom; condition of being free; grant of freedom, manumission. (FRAY-ot / ˈfreːɔt)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

un-getǣse, n.n: an inconvenience, a trouble. (UN-yeh-TAZZ-uh / ˈʌn-jɛ-ˌtæː-zə)
Image: Maastricht Hours; Netherlands, 1300-1325; British Library, Stowe MS 17.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript image of a nun spinning using a freestanding distaff; her cat has pounced on the twirling spindle dangling from her right hand.

#WotD

English Vocabulary 📖
GALVANIZE (v.)
Examples:

"The news galvanized them into protest."
"The threat galvanized the team to act."

sēam-penig, m.n: a toll of a penny on a load (of salt). (SAY-ahm-PEN-ih / ˈseːam-ˌpɛ-nɪj)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

lassitude

https://lemmy.world/post/31511913

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is GAY/VAGUE/WINK #wotd #gay #vague #wink #Pride #PrideMonth 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Although the etymology of the word gay may be uncertain & vague, taking more than a winking glance at its history gives some insight into this sometimes-pejorative & sometimes-reclaimed word. What’s certain is that gay came into Middle English from Old French gai, meaning “joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charming” as well as “high-spirited; frivolous, fickle; libertine”, but its deeper etymology is debated. Some make a connection with a Germanic root meaning “sudden, impetuous”, whereas others connect it with Latin gaudium “joy”, but the etymon championed by esteemed etymologist Anatoly Liberman, Latin vagus “wandering, rambling; inconstant” & its Italian derivative vago meaning both “wandering, roaming” & “pleasant, agreeable”, is perhaps the best fit. This would make it cognate with other English derivatives of Latin vagus, such as vague, vagrant, & extravagant, that have the “wandering” sense at their core, but gay might have developed both pejorative senses “libertine; frivolous” & positive senses “merry, vivacious” from the sense of “free from restraint”, & these two senses, one becoming standard the other slang, may have played into the later development of the word, including the one now most common, “homosexual”. Beyond Latin vagus, the etymology is even less certain, but a Proto-Indo-European root *huog-o- with connections to Old Norse vakka “to stray, hover about” & Old English wincian “to blink, wink” (giving us Modern English wink) has been suggested.

in-dryhto, f.n: nobleness, honour, glory. (in-DRUE-h’toh / ɪn-ˈdryx-tɔ)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Mot du jour : Carpodrome
https://www.carpiste.fr/environnement/liste-des-principaux-carpodromes-en-france/

#wotd

fōstor-fæder, m.n: foster-father, guardian. (FO-stor-FAD-er / ˈfoː-stɔr-ˌfæ-dɛr)
Image: The Holy Family in a psalter; England, early 13th century; British Library, Royal MS 1 D X, f. 1v.
#OldEnglish #WOTD #FathersDay

Medieval manuscript image of Joseph adjusting Mary’s pillow while she nurses Christ from her oddly disembodied breast.

stæf-wīs, adj: skilled in letters, literate. (STAFF-WEES / ˈstæf-ˌwiːs)
Image: De natura rerum; E France, 9th century; Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Msc.Nat.1, f. 41r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval manuscript page in Latin written in two different styles of lettering, as well as a large S decorated with knotwork that begins the word Sapientes.

lēad-gedelf, n.n: lead mine or quarry. (LAY-odd-yeh-DELF / ˈleːad-jɛ-ˌdɛlf)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

þyrel, n.n: hole. (THUE-rell / ˈθy-rɛl)
Image: De natura rerum; E France, 9th century; Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Msc.Nat.1, f. 26v.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

A hole in a page of a medieval manuscript reveals a dragon on the page beneath.

wēsten, m.n: desert, wilderness. (WAY-sten / ˈweː-stɛn)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

lāð, adj: hostile, malign, bearing hate toward another. (LAWTH / ˈlaːθ)
Image: Rothschild Canticles; Flanders or the Rhineland, c. 1300; Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, MS 404, f. 168v.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval marginalia depicting an elephant with a trunk nearly the size of its entire body and a tower bearing three soldiers on its back facing off with a man who carries a shield and a giant sword.

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is PRIDE/REPRESENT #wotd #pride #represent #PrideMonth #Pride2025 #pridemonth2025 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

June is Pride Month, a time for members of the LGBTQ+ community to represent, and that makes good etymological sense. The noun pride came from the adjective proud, Old English pryto and prud respectively, borrowed from Old French prud or prouz “brave, valiant”, from Late Latin prode “advantageous, profitable, from the Latin verb prodesse “to be useful”. The sense of “having a high opinion of oneself” developed later and may have come from the English’s post-conquest views of the Norman knights who called themselves proud in the “brave, valiant” sense. Latin prodesse is made up of the prefix prod-, a variant that comes before vowels of pro “before, for, instead of”, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *per- “forward, in front of, before, toward”, and esse “to be”, from the PIE root *es- “to be”. These same two roots came into Latin, and thereby English, in another way: *per- also produced Latin prae “before, in front” to form the word praeesse “to be before, be set over, preside over, rule”, and from the present participle of this verb comes praesens “at hand, in sight, present” (from which we get English present), which was further transformed into the verb praesentare “to present”, which when combined with the prefix re- (which means “back, again” but here is likely just an intensifying prefix) produced Latin repraesentare “to make present, show, exhibit, display”, Old French representer “to present, show, portray”, and English represent.

rǣden, f.n: condition. (RAD-en / ˈræː-dɛn)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

hālga gāst, n: Holy Spirit. (HALL-ga GAHST / ˈhaːl-ga ˈgaːst)
Image: Sherbrooke Missal; England (East Anglia), 1310-1320; National Library of Wales, MS. 15536E.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

Medieval historiated initial depicting the apostles and Virgin Mary being visited by the Holy Spirit in the form of a haloed dove.

lǣwede, adj: lay, i.e. not learned, not of the church; by gradual change of meaning it became modern English ‘lewd’. (LAE-weh-duh / ˈlæː-wɛ-də)
#OldEnglish #WOTD

#WOTD

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