Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The English language from the middle of the 5th to the beginning of the 12th century. Also called Anglo-Saxon.
- n. Printing See black letter.
Wiktionary
- n. The ancestor language of Modern English, also called Anglo-Saxon, spoken in Britain from about 400 AD to 1100 AD. The language is a more inflected language, maintaining strong and weak verbs, nouns, and adjectives. It has a clearly marked subjunctive mood, and has 5 cases of nouns and adjectives. In addition to singular and plural grammatical numbers, there was a dual number for two people. After ca. 884, many Old Norse words made their way into Old English, as Norse settlers in the Danelaw interacted with native Anglo-Saxons.
- n. Middle English.
- n. The ancestor language of Modern English, also called Anglo-Saxon, spoken in Britain from about 400 AD to 1100 AD. The language is a more inflected language, maintaining strong and weak verbs, nouns, and adjectives. It has a clearly marked subjunctive mood, and has 5 cases of nouns and adjectives. In addition to singular and plural grammatical numbers, there was a dual number for two people. After ca. 884, many Old Norse words made their way into Old English, as Norse settlers in the Danelaw interacted with native Anglo-Saxons.
- n. Middle English.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. See under English. n., 2.
WordNet 3.0
- n. English prior to about 1100
Examples
“Its root is the Old English boga, a curve, describing the wide bend in the River Yeo near by.”
“This 1781 term for an early form of what is now called “safe sex,” apparently pioneered by the prudent Welsh, was derived from the Old English bindan, “to bind together,” and was later applied to “men and women sleeping together, where the divisions of the house will not permit of better or more decent accommodation, with all their clothes on.””
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“The first year it was a dove with the word PEACE written in my first attempt at Old English calligraphy, shaky serifs making the word look like it was underwater.”
“The All-Breed Dog Grooming course continues the training with classes on short-legged terriers, long-legged terriers, soft-coated terriers, Bouvier des Flandres, Old English sheepdogs, sporting dogs, long-haired dogs, short-haired dogs, and cats.”
“For $1.50 apiece, another entrepreneur sold pseudo-parchment attendance certificates with simulated Old English lettering; an additional $2.95 bought a pseudo space pen.”
“The word, of Teutonic origin and first spelled bealde, appeared in Old English about the end of the first millennium.”
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“That first syllable, wal, is related to the Old English wale, which evolved into weal, as in commonweal, and then became wealth, in the sense of well-being as much as possession.”
“The sense here of the adjective sound comes from the second syllable of the Old English gesund, “health”—similar to the German Gesundheit! wished upon sneezers.”
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“The root of regret is the Old English grætan, “to weep.””
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
Lists
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reesetee Very nice article/book review by Ammon Shea here. Mar 7, 2010