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Pierre Hallet
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:04 am
Post subject: Another question from across the Channel |
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Good evening,
A question from the French equivalent of this newsgroup
(news:fr.lettres.langue.francaise):
If you trip on an unknown word when reading an original
text by Shakespeare, would you have a good chance of
finding that word in a (good) contemporary dictionary?
or would you need a special dictionary?
I tested that with "beteem" (you know: "So loving to
my mother/That he might not beteem the winds of heaven/
Visit her face too roughly") and a Britannica: failure.
But my sample is definitely too small.
Already many thanks for your kind attention.
Pierre Hallet (Brussels) |
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Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:40 am
Post subject: Re: Another question from across the Channel |
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On Tuesday, in article <3j03t4Fnl1m1U1@individual.net>
pierre.hallet@skynet.be "Pierre Hallet" wrote:
| Quote: | Good evening,
A question from the French equivalent of this newsgroup
(news:fr.lettres.langue.francaise):
If you trip on an unknown word when reading an original
text by Shakespeare, would you have a good chance of
finding that word in a (good) contemporary dictionary?
or would you need a special dictionary?
I tested that with "beteem" (you know: "So loving to
my mother/That he might not beteem the winds of heaven/
Visit her face too roughly") and a Britannica: failure.
But my sample is definitely too small.
|
"beteem" is definitely in Chambers, where it's annotatied as being used
both by Spenser and Shakespeare.
I would recommend "The Chambers Dictionary"[1] as the best single-volume
dictionary that will contain archaic words invented by Shakespeare, as
well as most modern coinages.
(I believe I read once that Shakespeare invented and/or introduced many
thousands of new words to "common" use in English; in which case "his"
words probably outnumber ALL those English words known to many native
speakers!)
[1] As it's nowadays entitled: whatever you do, don't waste your money on
"Chambers Twenty-first Century Dictionary"; it bears about as much
resemblence to the "real" Chambers as COD does to OED.
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} bhk@dsl.co.uk
"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu
le loisir de la faire plus courte."
Blaise Pascal, /Lettres Provinciales/, 1657 |
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John Briggs
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:22 am
Post subject: Re: Another question from across the Channel |
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Pierre Hallet wrote:
| Quote: |
A question from the French equivalent of this newsgroup
(news:fr.lettres.langue.francaise):
If you trip on an unknown word when reading an original
text by Shakespeare, would you have a good chance of
finding that word in a (good) contemporary dictionary?
or would you need a special dictionary?
I tested that with "beteem" (you know: "So loving to
my mother/That he might not beteem the winds of heaven/
Visit her face too roughly") and a Britannica: failure.
But my sample is definitely too small.
|
This is a faintly mysterious question, but to answer what you have asked:
there is a good chance that you will find such "literary" words in larger
(and older) dictionaries. In this case, "beteem" is apparently also used by
Spenser, and is thus included in my old (1972) Chambers Twentieth Century
Dictionary. It is also found at: http://dictionary.reference.com/ .
It is a good idea to have a specialised dictionary, such as David Crystal &
Ben Crystal, Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion (2004).
But it is really essential to use annotated modern texts, such as the
separate volumes (one per play) from the Arden Shakespeare, Oxford
Shakespeare or Cambridge Shakespeare series. These give texts that have
been modernised in spelling, but not in vocabulary, and explain unusual
words.
--
John Briggs |
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John of Aix
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 3:31 am
Post subject: Re: Another question from across the Channel |
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Pierre Hallet wrote:
| Quote: | Good evening,
A question from the French equivalent of this newsgroup
(news:fr.lettres.langue.francaise):
If you trip on an unknown word when reading an original
text by Shakespeare, would you have a good chance of
finding that word in a (good) contemporary dictionary?
or would you need a special dictionary?
|
I think you'd need a pretty good dictionary. Most of the words used by
Shakespeare are still in use (perhaps because of him) some aren't though
or have changed their meaning.
| Quote: | I tested that with "beteem" (you know: "So loving to
my mother/That he might not beteem the winds of heaven/
Visit her face too roughly") and a Britannica: failure.
But my sample is definitely too small.
|
Quite  |
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Mike Stevens
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:10 pm
Post subject: Re: Another question from across the Channel |
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Pierre Hallet wrote:
| Quote: | Good evening,
A question from the French equivalent of this newsgroup
(news:fr.lettres.langue.francaise):
If you trip on an unknown word when reading an original
text by Shakespeare, would you have a good chance of
finding that word in a (good) contemporary dictionary?
or would you need a special dictionary?
I tested that with "beteem" (you know: "So loving to
my mother/That he might not beteem the winds of heaven/
Visit her face too roughly") and a Britannica: failure.
But my sample is definitely too small.
|
It's in OED, with three meanings and citations between the sixteenth and
nineteenth centuries.
I'd be very surprised if OED missed out on any word used by Shakespeare.
--
Mike Stevens
narrowboat Felis Catus II
Web site www.mike-stevens.co.uk
No man is an island. So is Man. |
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