Talk:friþe

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Latest comment: 3 years ago by Hazarasp in topic RFV discussion: July 2021
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RFV discussion: July 2021

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Middle English.

  • MEC: "frith n.(2) Also freth(e, firth, fright, fruth, AL [= Anglo-Latin] frid-.".
    • It doesn't give an alternative form frithe or friþe.
  • Cursur Mundi:
    þis tree ys done in my friþe
    for I. wil þat hit haue griþe.
    • Looks like it could be an inflected form (dative) of friþ instead of an alternative form of frith.

--Macopre (talk) 15:13, 12 July 2021 (UTC)Reply

The MED's alternative forms lists aren't exhaustive, so friþe could simply be a alternate form that the MED editors missed. It doesn't look like it "could be a dative" here; instead, the orthographic final vowel is best interpreted as hypercorrect. Note that it's rhymed with griþe (= grith), which can't have a etymological final vowel here; additionally, the other three mss. of Cursor Mundi don't have a final vowel (two have frith, and one has friþ). Hazarasp (parlement · werkis) 07:17, 13 July 2021 (UTC)Reply
@Hazarasp: Sounds like it then might be a poetic or paragogic form? --Macopre (talk) 18:39, 13 July 2021 (UTC)Reply
There's no need to posit some sort of paragoge. The final -e is most likely hypercorrect. The scribe who wrote the manuscript obviously knew that some words once had a final -e and incorrectly assumed this was one of them. He (the scribe was almost definitely a man) has unetymological final -e in a few other words too: paradyse (← Old French paradis), ane (← Old English ān), wisedome (← Old English wīsdōm). Hazarasp (parlement · werkis) 03:00, 14 July 2021 (UTC)Reply