A Chaucer Glossary

by Norman Davis

This Glossary, designed as a practical aid to the reading of Chaucer, is intended to be serviceable with any of the widely read editions. Its primary aim is to explain the meanings of words and phrases used by Chaucer in ways which are unfamiliar in modern English. Words used as they are todayare not included, but many now in common use do appear, as they had different connotations in Chaucer's time. This concise working tool will be valuable to all Middle English scholars.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Language, Geoffrey Chaucer, Dictionaries

Paperback

First published August 2, 1979

About the author

Norman Davis was born in 1913 at Dunedin, New Zealand. He received his education at Otago Boys' High School and the University of Otago, where he was taught by Professor Herbert Ramsay. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, in 1934 and studied comparative philology. From 1937 to 1938, he lectured in English at the University of Kaunas in Lithuania, and then at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, 1938–39.

He remained in Bulgaria in the early part the Second World War, as a clandestine member of the Special Operations Executive. He was interned in Italy for a time, then resumed clandestine work from Turkey.

After the war he taught at the universities of London, Glasgow and Oxford. He succeeded J.R.R. Tolkien as the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford.

His most significant work was an edition of the medieval letters of the Paston family in three volumes published in 1971. He also edited a popular selection of the letters translated into modern English.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Handy companion for reading Chaucer. If you have an edition that has a fairly extensive glossary, this isn't worth it, but if you have a version that gives you simple, single meanings for certain Middle English words, this will probably help deepen your understanding of the text. Especially given that Chaucer adores using polysemy for effect. Handy when doing translations from Middle English into Modern.

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're going to read Chaucer, you need to have this book next to you.It is an etymological glossary of Chaucerian english and it shows such a clear perspective of the language back then that it's value is clear even for today's english language lover.

[Taka · Rating 2 out of 5]

I seriously don't think it's worth the money ($25 on Amazon) if you have Riverside Chaucer, which has an equally comprehensive (albeit not identical) glossary.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not necessarily a page turner, but you can't beat it for getting you through Middle English texts.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a page turner!