wyrmǣte, adj: worm-eaten. (WURM-at-teh)
This week’s Wordhord Wednesday post is on St Andrew’s thoughtful speech. Read and hear it on Patreon.
A sumptuously-dressed noble lady in a tomb with coats of arms, while below her skeleton is devoured by worms and insects. A Carthusian miscellany of poems, chronicles, and treatises. A Yorkshire or Lincolnshire Carthusian monastery (Axholme, Mountgrace or Kingston-upon-Hull?), 1460-1500. British Library, Add MS 37049, f. 32v. [bl.uk]
hār-wenge, adj: hoary, grey-haired. (HAR-wen-yeh)
flǣsc-hord, n.n: the flesh-hoard, the body. [FLÆSH-hord]
Bloodletting-Zodiac Man, from a collection of astronomical, calendrical, medical and philosophical texts compiled in England (1275-1540). British Library, Harley MS 3719, ff. 158v-159r. [blogs.bl.uk]
hungor-lǣwe, adj: hungry, famished. [HUN-gor-LÆ-weh]
Crocodile from a bestiary. France, c. 1450. Hague, Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25, fol. 12v. [bestiary.ca]
toren-īge, adj: blear-eyed. [TOR-en-EE-yeh]
feorh-hord, n.n: breast, soul, spirit, literally “life-hoard”. [FAY-orh-HORD]
oroþ, n.n: breath, breathing. [OH-roth]
un-arodscipe, m.n: inactivity, spiritlessness. [oon-AH-road-ship-eh]
wōlness, f.n: pest, pestilence, plague. [WOL-ness]
sealf, f.n: salve, ointment. [SAY-alf]
From an Anglo-Norman translation of the Chirurgia Practica of Roger of Salerno. Early 13th century. Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS O.1.20, f. 272r. [trin.cam.ac.uk]
