Glossary and Index of Proper Names (part 1)

The general resemblance between Gower and Chaucer in the matter of language makes a comparison of their English vocabularies almost a matter of course. Chaucer’s word-list is naturally much more extensive than Gower’s, not only on account of the superior genius of the writer, but also because of the greater extent and variety of his work, Gower’s English work being less than half of Chaucer’s in amount, and consisting of verse only, while nearly a fourth part of Chaucer’s is prose. We find, however, that Gower has more than six hundred words which are not used by Chaucer. Most of these are comparatively new formations from French or Latin, but there is also among them a fair sprinkling of old-established English words, some of which no doubt were falling into disuse. Such words are, for example: adryh, aghte, anele, arecche, areche, arere v., beȝete, bysne, eldemoder, enderday, ferke, forȝifte, forlie, forworþe, frede, ȝeme, gladschipe, goodschipe, grede (gradde), griþ, heveneriche, kingesriche, lere (= loss), lich (= corpse), metrede, miele, mone (3), mull, orf, orped, rowe v. (= dawn), sawht, skiere, spire v., spousebreche, þarmes, tome s., tote, tyh (pret.), tyt adv., wow, yhte.

Of the rest the following (among others) are words for which no authority earlier than Gower is cited in the New English Dictionary (A-I): those for which Gower is the sole authority are printed in italics.

abeche, ablaste, abord, abroche adv., accidence, agrope, altemetrie, apostazied, apparantie, approbacion, artificier, aspirement, assignement, assobre, assote v., astraied, attempte v., attitled, avant adv., avantance, babe, baldemoine, balke v., baske, bass adj. (‘base’), bedawe, bederke, befole (‘befool’), belwinge, bethrowe, bewympled, bienvenue, bombard, brothell, brygantaille, calculacion, caliphe, carte (= writing), chacable, chace (at tennis), chance v., chevance, circumference, client, coise, cokard, cokerie (‘cookery’), compense, conclave, concordable, congelacion, congruite, contempt, contourbe, courbe s. and adj., decas, deificacion, delaiement, delate (= dilate), depos s., desclos adj., desclose v., desobeie, desobeissance, dispers, distillacion, doubtif, drunkeschipe, duistre, effeminat adj., eloquent, enbrouderie (‘embroidery’), enclin, encluyed, encourtined, enfile, enheritance, ensamplerie, entendable, entendance, entendant, epitaphe, esmaie, espeir, espleit (‘exploit’), exalacion, excessif, excitacioun, excusement, expectant, faie adj., fieverous, fixacioun, flacke, folhaste, folhastif, forcacche, forge s., forstormed, forsueie, forthrere (= furtherer), froise, gaignage, gamme, genitals, godward, gule, hepe (= hook), heraldie, hovedance, injustice, interruption, intersticion, inthronize.

Of these nearly half are used in the English of the present day.

For the remainder of the alphabet I content myself with calling attention to the following, without venturing on any statement about their earlier use:

justificacion, liberal, liberalite, lien (= bond), lugge, mathematique, matrone, mechanique, mecherie, menable, mineral, moevement, multitude, oblivion, obstinacie, occupacion, original, passible, perjurie, philliberd (= filbert), piereles, pilage, pleintif adj., pointure, porte (= porthole), preparacion, presage, preserve, proclame, prophetesse, providence, purefie, raile s., recepcion, recreacion, relacion, renounce, reptil, resemblance, restauratif, revelen, riff (= reef of a sail), sale, salvage, scharnebud, scisme, sculpture, seintefic, solucion, specifie, sprantlen, spume, stacion, studious, substitucion, supplante, supporte, temprure, tenetz (= tennis), terremote, tonsure, transpose, trompette.

In matters of vocabulary my obligations are first and principally to the New English Dictionary, then to Prof. Skeat’s Chaucer Glossary, to Stratmann’s Middle Engl. Dictionary (ed. Bradley), and to Halliwell’s Dictionary of Archaisms. With reference especially to Gower I may mention the dissertation by G. Tiete (Breslau, 1889).

The following Glossary is meant to include all the words used in Gower’s English Works, with their various forms of spelling and (where necessary) of inflexion, accompanied with such references as are required for verification of the forms given and for illustration of the different uses and meanings of the words. As a rule, when a word occurs more than once, at least two references are given, but this statement does not apply to inflexional forms. If a word presents any difficulty or is used in a variety of meanings, the number of references is proportionally increased. A complete set of references is given for proper names.

The Confessio Amantis is referred to by P., i, ii, iii, &c., P. standing for the Prologue, and the Roman numerals for the successive books. PP. stands for the poem In Praise of Peace. Word-forms which are not found in the Fairfax MS., or only in the latter part of it, which is written by a different hand, are sometimes enclosed in parentheses. These are also used occasionally to indicate variation of spelling: thus dissencioun (-on) means that the word is spelt either with ‘-oun’ or ‘-on’ termination, wher(e) indicates that ‘wher’ and ‘where’ are alternative forms. In all cases where ‘y’ is used to represent ‘ȝ,’ that fact is indicated by ‘(ȝ)’ placed after the word when it occurs in its place, as beyete(ȝ)

The grammatical abbreviations are, s. substantive, a. adjective, v. verb, v.a. verb active, v.n. verb neuter, v.a.n. verb active and neuter, 3 s.pres. 3rd person singular present tense, pret. past tense, pp. past participle, def. definite form of adjective, &c.

In many cases an explanation is given of the meaning of words for the convenience of readers, but no discussion as to their meaning or origin is admitted in the Glossary.