For many Middle English words given below, their most obvious, modern meaning is assumed; only a supplemental, perhaps unexpected, definition is given (e.g., “and: also”). Commas separate variations of the same meaning; semi-colons distinguish different definitions of the same word. Underlined words are my replacements for “dead” or obsolete words. All other words are found in a somewhat recognizable form in the “Wycliffe Bible”.
A
aback: back, backward.
abide: to remain; to wait for; to endure.
abode: (v) remained or lived at; waited for; endured.
above-ordaineth: to add to.
above-seeming: beyond grasp or measurement, ‘most excellent’ (also ‘over-seeming’).
abridge: to shorten.
accept(ed): acceptable.
acceptation: favourable reception, approval, ‘acceptance’.
acception: partiality, favour-itism, approval, ‘acceptance’.
acceptor: one who accepts or respects preferentially, ‘respecter’.
accord: to agree with, in concord with (also ‘accordeth’).
according: (n) an agreement.
accursed: cursed.
acknowledge: (v) to confess; to profess.
acknowledged: (n) friends and acquaintances, one’s ‘known’.
acknowledging: (n) ‘an acknowledgement’; the act of confession or profession.
acount: to count; to reckon (survives in ‘accounting’).
adder: viper.
adjure: to entreat, earnestly appeal to.
administration: ministry or service.
admonish: to reprove; to warn; to exhort.
adorn: to bring credit to; to add lustre to, improve the appearance of.
adown: down.
afeared: afraid.
after: according to.
again-begetting: being born again (also ‘again-begotten’).
again-bought: (v) redeemed.
again-buy: (v) to redeem.
again-buyer: redeemer.
again-newing: renewing.
again-promise: a promise.
again-raise: (v) to raise up; to resurrect.
again-rise: (v) to resurrect.
again-rising: resurrection.
again-said: ‘gainsaid’ or ‘said-again(st)’, opposed, resisted, or contradicted.
again-say: (v) ‘to gainsay’ or ‘say-again(st)’, to oppose, resist, or contradict (also ‘again-sayeth’).
again-saying: (n) ‘gainsaying’ or ‘saying-again(st)’, answering back, verbally opposing, resisting, contradicting.
against: directly opposite; to meet (sometimes with ‘to come’ or ‘to go’).
against-said: see ‘again-said’.
against-say: see ‘again-say’.
against-stand: (v) to ‘stand-against’, to physically resist, withstand, or oppose.
against-stood: ‘stood-against’, withstood, resisted, opposed.
again-ward: on the contrary; to the other side.
alarged: enlarged.
alder-highest: lit. the ‘senior-highest’, both ‘elder’ or ‘oldest’ highest, and ‘chief’ or ‘most’ highest (survives in ‘alderman’).
alien: (n) stranger, foreigner.
aliened: (v) estranged, alienated.
alighten: to bring to light, ‘to enlighten’.
all wise: all ways, in all manner.
all-gates: always (from ‘algatis’ or ‘allegates’; perhaps derived from the time when cities were fortified with gates as ‘ways’ to enter and exit; hence, ‘all-gates’ prefigures ‘all-ways’, and so ‘always’).
allway/alway: always (found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV).
ambush: (n, v) lying in wait; treason (from ‘aspies’; also ‘ambushing(s)’).
amend: to mend, put right or correct.
amorrow: the next day, ‘tomorrow’.
and: also (‘also’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
announce: to proclaim without allowing dissent, ‘to command’ (from ‘denounce’).
anon: at once, immediately, straightaway (found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV).
apert: (adv.) open (survives in ‘aperture’).
apocalypse: revelation.
appareled: attired, dressed, furnished.
apprehend: to grasp, seize, take hold of.
approach: (v) modern equivalent of ‘to nigh’ (also ‘approacheth’).
araised: raised or lifted up.
architricline: master of a feast.
areach: (v) to give to.
areared: reared or raised up.
areckon: (v) to reckon or take an accounting of (from ‘arette’; ‘reckon’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
argentary: silversmith.
arms: weapons.
asides half: in private (also ‘asides hand’).
assay: (v) to try, test, or prove.
assign: to appoint or ordain (from ‘dispose’; ‘assign’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
assoiled: absolved.
assuage: to alleviate.
astrologer: one who divines destiny by means of movement of heavenly bodies. The word in the “Later Version” is actually ‘astronomer’. However, in the 17th century, ‘astronomer’/‘astrologer’ and ‘astronomy’/‘astrology’ switched meanings and became defined as we know them today. And so, ‘astrologer’ is used in Wycliffe’s New Testament.
astronomer: see ‘astrologer’ above (also ‘astronomy’).
asunder: into pieces or parts; separated or divided.
attention: from ‘tent’.
atwain: in two; apart.
atwo: in two.
aught: any, anything, something.
author: originator, creator.
avow: (n) a solemn promise, declaration or pledge, a vow or avowal; (v) to make a vow.
B
bade: invited; ordered.
bailiff: an overseer of an estate, a steward (from ‘bailee’).
bailiffship: a bailiff’s area of authority or responsibility (from ‘bailey: the surrounding area of a castle contained within its outer walls, or its courtyard’; survives in ‘bailiwick’ and the ‘Old Bailey’, London’s criminal courts).
barbaric: (n) barbarian.
be busy: to care about, or to be concerned about.
be: are (pl. form of verb ‘to be’).
beastly: animal nature; material (vs. spiritual).
befall: to happen or occur (also ‘befell(ed)’).
before-goer: one who goes or went before, a forerunner; one’s superior.
before-going: going before.
before-knew: known before or known for a long time.
before-knowing: knowing before hand, ‘foreknowing’.
before-ordained: fore-ordained.
before-ordinance of worlds: Divine destiny.
before-said: said before, aforesaid, aforementioned.
before-think: to think before, or to have forethought.
before-told: foretold.
before-witting: to know beforehand, foreknowing.
before-written: written (long) before, foreordained.
begotten: engendered, caused to be.
beguiled: deceived.
beguiler: a deceiver.
behest: (n) a command (found in its obsolete meaning of ‘promise’ throughout the “Wycliffe Bible”).
beholden: beheld.
behoove: ought, must, incumbent upon (also ‘behooveth’, ‘behooved’).
belief: (n) faith.
bemourned: mourned over.
beneficence: favours, good services, gifts (from ‘benefice’, which survives as ‘a church office endowed with funds or property’).
benign: kind, gentle, mild.
benignity: goodness, kindness.
beseech: to earnestly implore.
beseechings: (n) earnest requests, supplications, entreaties.
beseem: to be fitting or appropriate, ‘becoming’.
beseemeth to me: seems to me.
beset: to harass, encircle, attack on all sides.
besom: broom or bundle of twigs used for sweeping.
besought: beseeched.
bespat: spat upon.
bespit: to spit upon.
betake: to deliver to, to give over to; to commit to.
betaken: delivered to or given to; committed to.
bethink: to think upon; to remember.
bethought: thought upon or about; remembered.
betook: gave over or delivered to.
betwixt: between.
bewail: to wail over.
beweep: to weep over.
bezant: precious Byzantine coin (of gold or silver) of substantial value, analogous to the British pound of the 14th century.
bilibre: a weight of 2 pounds.
bill: a written statement.
bis: see bisso.
bishopric: office or diocese of a bishop.
bisso: a fine, sheer linen made of stiff, round yarns which give a crisp texture (now used for altar cloths).
blame: (v) to reproach, accuse.
blessfulness: blessedness.
bliss: heaven.
blown: puffed up, inflated.
board: (n) table; dinner; money-changer.
body-like: bodily.
bondman: a servant or slave (survives as ‘bondsman’).
bonds: bondage, captivity; bands.
bound: (n) prisoner.
bowels: see entrails.
brand: (n) torch.
brethren: brothers.
brink: edge or shore of a body of water.
brock: (n) a badger.
broken: stopped (2nd Cor. 11.10).
bruise: (v) to crush or pound into powder.
buffet: (n) a hit or strike; (v) to hit or strike.
buffonery: jesting, ribaldry (from ‘harlotry’).
burgher: a citizen of a town, burgh or city.
busily: diligently.
busyness: diligence; cares, concerns (also ‘busynesses’).
butchery: a slaughterhouse.
by cause: by reason of, ‘because’.
by compass: all around; round about.
by kind: by nature, ‘naturally’.
by row: in order.
C
call: from ‘clepen’.
came against: met.
canst: knowest (how to), ‘knows’.
captive: (n) prisoner.
care: (v) to have concern for, or an interest in (something).
cares: (n) concerns or worries.
carrions: dead, putrefying flesh.
cast: (v) to throw.
casting out: (n) that which is discarded, thrown off or out.
casting: (n) vomit (also found as ‘casting-up’).
castle(s): town, village; fortified place, camp, fortress.
cause: reason for something; case; accusation.
caution: a pledge or obligation (to reimburse), a ‘bill to pay’.
chaffer: (v) to trade, bargain, buy and sell.
chalice: a large drinking cup or goblet (survives as the Eucharist cup in which the wine is consecrated).
chamber: room.
changer: money-changer.
changing: money-exchange, exchanging.
charge: (n) burden, load; care, concern; a command; ship’s cargo.
charge: (v) to burden or concern; to command.
chargeable: burdensome.
chargeous: burdensome (see ‘in charge to’).
charity: love.
chattel: personal property.
cheer: (n) face (from Old French).
chide: (v) to scold, rebuke, reproach.
chidings: (n) scoldings, rebukes, reproaches.
child: (n) a servant (pl. children: servants); (v) to give birth to.
chimney: fireplace, furnace, stove.
christen: to baptize (survives in ‘naming during baptism’, and, in particular, ‘to baptizeinfants’).
cistern: an artificial reservoir or tank for water.
clarified: ‘glorified’ (see next entry).
clarify: (v) to make clear, free from all impurities, ‘to glorify’.
clarity: clearness, lucidity, ‘glory’.
cleansings: (n) refuse, that which is cleansed or removed, purgings.
clear: pure; clean; transparent; ‘glorious’.
clearness: ‘glory’.
cleaved: split into parts; adhered to.
cleaveth: to join or adhere to.
cloak: a loose-fitting outer garment (from ‘cloth’, which the “Wycliffe Bible” also uses as the singular of ‘clothes’; survives in ‘man of the cloth’).
cloth: outer garment; singular of clothes (see ‘cloak’ above).
‘clothes: idiomatic abbreviation for ‘swaddling clothes’ (Luke 2:7 and 2:12).
cockles: weeds that grow among grain (also referred to as ‘darnels’ and ‘tares’).
coffin: basket (survives in ‘coffer’).
collects: the gathering of money from church-goers (survives in ‘collection: the weekly giving of money for church expenses’).
collyrium: eye-salve.
colour: false pretence or appearance.
come against: (v) to meet.
comeling: newcomer, stranger (see ‘–ling’ below).
comfort: to make strong or to strengthen; to exhort; to give help, hope or support.
commander: leader, master.
‘common beholding place’: a theatre or public auditorium.
common ward: prison.
communer: one who partakes in the Eucharist.
communing: fellowship; partaking with, or sharing; communion; communication; to empathize with.
company: crowd, multitude of people (also ‘company of people’, ‘companies’, ‘companies of people’).
comparison: (v) to compare (also ‘comparisoned’, ‘comparisoning’).
compass: (v) to go round; to surround.
comprehend: (v) to physically apprehend, grasp, catch, or lay hold of (this usage found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV); to understand.
compunct: (v) to feel remorse, guilt, or pity (also ‘compuncted’).
compunction: a sense of guilt, remorse, or regret arising from wrong-doing.
concision: division, a faction.
concourse: a crowd or throng of people.
concupiscences: lusts; any immoderate desires.
confirm: to affirm or establish; to make firm or strong, ‘to strengthen’.
confound: to confuse; to amaze or astonish; to be ashamed or put to shame.
confusion: embarrassment; disgrace, shame.
conjuration: a swearing together or conspiracy.
conjure: to adjure or solemnly appeal to.
constable: officer of the law or courts (from ‘cachepollis: sheriff’s officer, enforcer of the law’; perhaps distantly related to ‘police’).
constrain: to coerce or restrain.
continence: (n) self-restraint, moderation, chastity.
continent: (adj.) self-restrained, moderate, sexually chaste.
contrition: remorse, guilt, shame.
conversation: living, or manner of life.
copious: abundant, plentiful.
cor: measure of wheat (8 bushels = 1 cor).
corn: a seed or kernel of a cereal plant.
couch: a bed or enclosed sleeping space, hence ‘bedchamber’.
countenance: face.
covenable: suitable, opportune, fitting, seasonable, in agreement (survives in ‘covenant:(n) an agreement; (v) to agree to’). covenability: opportunity (‘opportunity’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
covent: an assembly or gathering (later became ‘convent’; survives in “Covent Gardens”).
coveting(s): (n) lust, desire; greed.
covetousness: lust, desire; greed, ‘the over-hard keeping of goods’ (from ‘covetise’).
craftsman: artisan (from ‘craftiman’).
cratch: a crib or rack especially for fodder; a trough or open box in a stable designed to hold feed or fodder for livestock; a manger; a stall (survives in ‘crèche: a manager scene; a crib for feed’; see ‘feed-trough’).
creature: man; God’s creation; man’s creations.
crime: wrong-doing; violation of God’s Law.
cruet: a small glass bottle.
culver: dove.
cure: to make well; to take care of or to have concern for something or someone.
curiously: meddlesome behaviour, ‘pryingly’.
currier: one who curries or dresses tanned hides.
curse: (n) damnation.
cutting: rending.
D
damnation: eternal punishment.
darked: darkened.
darkful: dark-full, ‘full of darkness’.
darnels: weeds that grow among wheat (also called ‘cockles’ or ‘tares’).
daunt: to tame; to cow.
days of profession: days of declaring or registering oneself,and so, ‘a census’.
deadly: mortal.
deal: (v) to give or apportion out.
dear-worthy: beloved (sometimes found as ‘dearworth’ in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
decurion: officer commanding ten horsemen; member of a colony senate.
deem: to judge; to condemn; to damn (also ‘deemest’).
deemer: one who discerns, ‘a judge’ (‘judge’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
deepness: (n) bottomless pit, hell.
deface: to disfigure one’s face.
defame: to slander or libel; to accuse.
defoul: to defile.
defouling: lechery.
delayed: deferred.
delights: great pleasures, luxuries (from ‘delices’).
deliver: to take or surrender to, to give over to; to release.
delve: to dig.
den: a cave; dwelling of animals.
denounce: to attack or condemn openly; to accuse (from ‘defame’; ‘denounce’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
depart: to leave.
deposit: ‘the thing betaken to thee’, i.e., the word of the Lord.
deprave: (v) to corrupt or pervert (from ‘shrewide’; ‘deprave’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
described: to make a detailed word-picture or ‘description’; to contribute information,and so, ‘to participate in a census’.
describing: (n) a condition or situation which is ‘described’, and so, ‘a census’.
desert: deserving; see ‘without desert’.
desolate: deserted, forlorn, destitute of life, joy or comfort.
despise: to loathe, regard as contemptible; to disdain, scorn, or neglect.
despisings: (n) insults, mocking.
despite: (n) contempt, dishonour, insult; malice.
despoiled: stripped; robbed.
despoiling: putting off (of the body).
determined: resolutely or firmly decided.
diadem: crown.
diligently: carefully; industriously.
discharge: (v) unburden.
discipless: female disciple.
discipline: (n) teaching, learning, the state of being informed; (v) to chastise.
discording: conflict, strife, contention, the opposite of being in accordance.
disdain: (n) that which is unworthy of one’s attention; (v) to scorn or feel superior to.
dis-ease: ‘not’ ease, so, distress, trouble, tribulation, difficulty.
dispensation: distribution; exemption from obligation.
dispenser: administrator, steward.
dispose: (v) to put into proper arrangement, position, or order; to transfer to another, as by gift; to assign or ordain.
disputations: arguments, controversy, debate.
dissolved: to depart this life, to die.
distressed: extreme suffering or affliction (from ‘noyen’, which survives in ‘annoy’; ‘distressed’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
distrouble: troubled, disturbed (also ‘distroubled’, ‘distroubling’).
diverseth: is different or distinct from.
domination: that which is ruled over, ‘dominion’.
doom (place): judgment seat, or ‘place of judgment’, often found in the market place.
doom(s): (n) judgment, Divine or legal; condemnation; decrees; law-suits.
doomsman: a judge (see ‘deemer’).
drachma: a silver coin of ancient Greece.
draw: to pull.
drawn to pieces: pulled to pieces (‘to pieces’ implied in the verb, ‘to-drawn’); disembowelled.
dread: (n) fear.
dreaded: (v) feared.
dread-full: ‘full of dread’, fear of the Lord, ‘devout’.
dress: (v) to put into proper alignment, to make straight; to prepare for use; to direct (this usage survives in ‘street address’).
drit: dung, waste; dirt.
dropsy: an accumulation of fluid in body cavities.
dross: refuse or impurity in melted metal, ‘slag’.
drove: (n) a herd or flock, often moving as one.
drown: from ‘drenched’.
duke: nobleman, prince.
dumb: silent; mute.
durst: dare.
‘dwelling city’: a permanent home.
E
earth-tiller: worker of the soil, ‘farmer’.
earth-tilling: working the soil to produce crops, ‘farming’.
easiness: a state of ease, without difficulty.
ecstasy: ‘the losing of mind and reason, and hindering of tongue’ (gloss from the “Early Version”).
either: or.
embrace: from ‘biclippe’.
enclosed: contained (within).
encompass: to surround.
end: to become perfect.
endeavoured: attempted, made an effort to (from ‘enforced’).
ended: to be made perfect.
ending: perfection.
endured: made hard, hardened.
enfatted: made fat.
engender: (v) to bring about, create, produce (from ‘gender’).
engolded: gilded.
enhance: to heighten or increase, as in beauty or quality, ‘to exalt’.
enlighten: to give light to, to make brighter; to impart new knowledge to (found only in the “Early Version”).
enmity: deep-seated hostility.
ensample: example (‘both ‘ensample’ and ‘example’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV; ‘example’ found only in the “Early Version”).
ensearch: to search out or into.
enstore: to store up, enclose, or include.
entering in: (n) a visit; (v) to visit.
entrails: idiomatically, one’s children or offspring; also, that which one feels most close to, or deeply about (the KJV uses ‘bowels’ in the same way).
entries: gates or entrances.
entry: (n) a visit; a way to enter, and so ‘an entrance’; (v) to visit.
environ: to encircle or surround (also ‘environed’, ‘environing’)
enwrapped: wrapped. enwrappeth: wraps.
epistle: a letter.
equity: fairness, impartiality, justice.
err: (v) fig., to go astray, that is, to make a mistake; lit., to stray or wander or roam.
eschew: to avoid or shun.
espy: to watch, catch sight of, descry, discover; to spy (also ‘espied’, ‘espying’).
evangel: (n) gospel.
evangelize: to preach the gospel.
even: equal or one’s equal (widespread usage including ‘even-captive’, ‘even-disciples’, ‘even-elders’, ‘even-faith’, ‘even-fellow’, ‘even-heir’, ‘even-knight’, ‘even-labourer’, ‘even-lineage’, ‘even-prisoner’, ‘even-servant’, even-worthy, even-worker’); evening.
evenness: equality.
even-pence: lit. ‘equal pennies’, the same or equal pay.
eventide: evening.
ever-each: each and every one.
evil-at-ease: sick; distressed.
excellent: exceedingly.
except: with the exclusion of, without, aside from, besides (from ‘outakun: take out’).
excite: to encourage.
excusation: (n) an excuse.
execrable: detestable, extremely bad.
exemplar: a model, pattern, example (from (‘en)saumpler’).
exercitation: (n) exercise, exertion.
expedient: advantageous, profitable.
expedite: hasten or speed (up).
experiment: to make a test or trial, an assay.
expound: to state or declare in detail; to explain or interpret.
F
facility: ease, easiness.
faculties: gifts or possessions.
fair: beautiful; seemly.
faithful: ‘full of faith’, believing.
famed: (v) proclaimed, celebrated.
family: from ‘meyne’.
farthing: a small British coin of bronze, worth ¼ of a penny.
fear you: make you have fear or to be afraid.
fearedful: fearful.
feeble: maimed, crippled; weak.
feed-trough: a trough or open box in a stable designed to hold feed or fodder for livestock, a ‘manger’ (from Old French ‘cratch’, which survives in ‘crèche: a crib for feed, as well as a representation of the Nativity or ‘manager’ scene’; see ‘cratch’).
feel: to perceive; to think or judge (also ‘feeled’, ‘feeling’).
feign: to make a false show of or a sham.
fell (wisdom): wicked or deceitful.
fen: marsh, bog.
fescue: a piece of straw, a mote or a speck of dust.
field place: a plain.
fiend: a devil; the Devil.
fiendly: devilish.
figure: (n) form, pattern, example; design.
fill: to supply with as much as can be contained, to become full.
filled: completed, fulfilled; full.
filthhood: dirtiness, shamefulness.
firm: solid, stable, secure (from ‘sad’; also ‘firmer’).
firmness: moral constancy.
fleshly: carnal.
flew: fled (p.t. of flee).
flock: (n) a group of the same type of animals, ‘a herd’.
flood: a great body of flowing water, a stream or river; waves.
flourish: (v) to blossom, flower, or thrive.
flowered: (v) blossomed, revived.
flume: a narrow passageway (natural or manmade) for water, ‘a river’.
flux: (n) a flow or discharge.
foal: colt.
folk(s): nation(s).
follily: foolishly.
folly: foolishness; acting foolish.
fond: foolish.
for why: because; for this reason.
fore-knowing: prescience.
foreyard: an outer court or enclosed front yard.
forsake: to renounce, abandon, relinquish, ‘to leave’.
forsook: renounced, left.
forsooth: ‘for truth’, in truth, certainly.
forswear: to swear falsely, to commit perjury, to break an oath.
forsworn: those who commit perjury or give false testimony.
‘found’: to provide with food and lodging (Deeds 28:7).
foundament: foundation (survives in ‘fundament’, ‘fundamental’).
frail: physically or morally weak.
frauded: defrauded.
frothing: foaming.
froward: disobedient, intractable.
fulfill: to accomplish; to satisfy.
full hieingly: speedily.
full sorry: extremely regretful.
full waxen: reached adulthood, mature, fully grown.
fuller: one that ‘fulls’ or makes cloth thicker and more compact through moistening and beating.
full-fill: to completely fill.
full-filled: full.
G
gab: to lie or spread falsehoods (also ‘gabbing’; survives as ‘to prattle or chatter’).
gainsaid: ‘said-against’, opposed, resisted, or contradicted.
gainsaith: (v) to ‘say-against’, to oppose, resist, or contradict (also “gainsay”).
gainsayer: (n) one who answers back, contradicts, verbally opposes or resists.
gainsaying: (n) ‘saying-against’, answering back, verbally opposing or resisting, contradicting.
garden: from Old French; found in the “Wycliffe Bible”, as well as ‘3erde: yard/ garden’.
garring: (much) talking (survives in ‘garrulous’).
gelding: eunuch.
gender: (v) to cause to be, to beget, ‘to engender’ (also ‘gendereth’).
generation: offspring; creation of offspring; group of individuals born at about the same time (also ‘generations’).
german: closely related by blood or attitude, and so, a partner, comrade, or yoke-fellow.
ghostly: spiritual; spiritually.
gird: to clothe oneself; to make ready (also ‘girded’).
gladded: rejoiced, ‘full out joyed’.
glassen: glassy.
glory: (n) magnificent splendour; worshipful adoration.
glory: (v) to take pride in; to boast or brag about.
glossing: (n) flattery (survives in ‘gloss: a superficial or deceptive appearance’).
go against: go to meet.
gobbet: piece or fragment (also ‘gobbets’).
Godhead: divinity.
goggle-eyed: bulging eyes, from injury or defect.
goods: good things.
gospel: ‘good news’ or ‘glad tidings’, that is, the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
governance: the exercise of authority.
governor: steersman; shipmaster; ruler, leader.
grace: favour or gift from God; any gift (also ‘graces’).
graces: ‘thanks to God’.
graving: carving, ‘engraving’.
great hunger: famine.
grees: steps or stairway (survives in ‘degrees’).
grievous: burdensome (survives in the idiom of ‘to give one grief’).
grieved: made to feel sorrow or grief.
grind: to gnash (the teeth).
grumble: (v) to complain in a low, muttering manner (from ‘grutchen’; also ‘grumbled’, ‘grumblers’, ‘grumbling’).
grutch: to grumble (survives in ‘grudge’ and ‘grouch’; also spelled ‘grucche’; also ‘gructched’, ‘grutcher’, ‘grutching’).
guess: (v) to suppose or consider; to think.
guileful: deceitful, treacherous.
guiler: deceiver (survives in ‘beguiler’).
guilts: trespasses, transgressions.
H
habergeon: breastplate (from ‘haburion’; survives in ‘haber-dasher’).
habit: deportment, disposition, personal custom; apparel.
habitacle: place of habitation (suffix survives in ‘tabernacle’).
had mind: remembered.
haircloth: from ‘heyre’.
half: hand; side.
hallow: to make holy, to sanctify.
hallows: (n) saints.
halt: (n) the crippled or lame.
harbour: shelter, lodging, place of rest and refuge.
harbourgerie: inn or guest-chamber (from Old French; part of the sense survives in ‘menagerie: an enclosure for…’).
harded: hardened, made stubborn.
hardeneth: make stubborn.
hardily: boldly.
hardness: harshness, severity.
hardy: able to endure, tough; bold.
harlotry: see ‘buffonery’.
harm: to hurt, to wrong (from ‘noyen’; survives in ‘annoy’; ‘harm’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
harmful: from ‘noyous’ (close in meaning and sound to ‘noxious’, but they have different roots).
hasted: hastened.
haunt: to practise habitually.
have mind: to remember.
having mind: remembering.
heals: healings.
health: salvation; healing; soundness, well-being.
heathen: the Gentiles (also ‘heathen men’).
heaviness: sorrow, grief (also ‘heavinesses’).
heavy: grieved, burdened, troubled (also ‘heavied’).
her: herself.
hereof: of this, in regard to this.
heretofore: before now, previously.
heritage: inheritance.
hid place: secret or private place or conference (the “Wycliffe Bible” also renders this as ‘huddles’, see below).
hie: (v) to hasten or to hurry (also ‘hied’).
hieingly: speedily, hastily.
him: himself; it, itself.
hind: a hired farm labourer, ‘a hired hand’.
hinder: (v) to impede, hamper or delay (from ‘let’; also ‘hindered’, from ‘letted’).
hinder: situated at the back of or rear (the verb form of hinder, ‘to hold back or thwart’, is not found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
hire: (n) payment for labour, wages; reward for service.
hireling: (n) one who serves for hire.
his: its.
hold in mind: to keep in mind, to remember.
hold: (n) a prison.
holden: held.
‘holding knighthood’: engaged in active military service; ‘making war’, and so, contextually, ‘engaged in spiritual warfare’.
holiday: ‘holy day’.
holy day: survives in ‘holiday’ (but now the meaning is upside-down).
holy letters: the scriptures.
home-church: church in/at one’s home.
honest: honourable; good; seemly, becoming, decent.
honestly: seemly, becomingly.
honesty: seemliness, decency.
honour: (v) to do homage to; to give glory to. In the “Wycliffe Bible”, as per British usage, ‘honour’ and ‘worship’ are inter-changeable; in Wycliffe’s New Testament, usage follows modern conventions.
honourable: worthy of honour (the “Wycliffe Bible” alternates use with the British term ‘worshipful’).
honouring: doing homage to; worshipping.
honours: (n) gifts, tokens of respect.
hoses: trousers-like garment, worn by men, to cover the lower body (survives in ‘hose’ and ‘hosiery’).
host(s): army (armies); sacrifice(s) to God.
hosteler: inn keeper.
hostelry: inn, lodging place (survives in ‘hostel’).
household: from ‘meyne’ (‘house-hold’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
huddles: (n) secret or private place or conference (the “Wycliffe Bible” gives ‘hid place’ as an alternate rendering; survives in the modern ‘to huddle’, which paints a particularly expressive picture in Matt. 6:4 ff.).
hurled: thrown (down or against) with force or violence.
hurting(s): cause of sin or stumbling, obstacle to righteous living; spurning (see ‘offence’).
hurtled: to rush violently into, to collide with; to strike; to scuttle a ship.
husbandman: farmer, earth-tiller; master of a household.
I
idiot: untaught or uninstructed person.
idle: lazy.
idly believed: ineffectively, frivolously, or vainly believed.
idol: an image representing a god and worshipped as divine; the object of heathen worship (the “Wycliffe Bible” uses ‘idol’, ‘simulacrum’ and ‘maumet’ interchangeably).
impaired: (v) damaged, harmed, made worse, weakened.
impairing(s): (n) harm, damage, worsening, weakening, injury, loss (also ‘impairment’).
improbity: persistent or continual asking, ‘importunity’.
impugned: physically attacked or assailed.
‘in charge to’: as a charge or a burden to, so ‘burdensome’ (see ‘chargeous’).
in compass: all around, round about, ‘to encompass’.
in kind: by nature.
in mind: to remember, a remembrance.
in-bloweth: to puff up or swell (with pride).
in-blown: puffed up or swollen (with pride).
in-call: to inwardly call upon, to ‘invoke’.
include: to contain within.
incorrupt: not corruptible or subject to decay or ruin (also ‘incorruptible’, ‘incorruption’).
indignations: provocations, that which raises ire.
indissoluble: that which may not be dissolved or undone.
indulgence: tolerance (of), permission (to).
infirmity: physical, mental, and/or moral weakness; mortality (i.e., humanness).
inform: to give character to, to imbue or inspire; to teach, give knowledge to or instruct, and so, to ‘in-form’ or ‘form within’; further, to ‘reform’ or ‘restore’.
informing: (n) making known by example or pattern; inspiring or ‘in-forming’ (see entry above).
inopportune: unsuitable, not fitting, inappropriate, out of season (from ‘uncovenable’).
inputted: placed (or put) on or in; loaded up.
inset: set-in or joined.
‘into the middle’: into the centre (of attention).
inwardnesses: that which one feels most close to or deeply about (idiomatic expression synonymous with ‘entrails’ and ‘bowels’).
irreprehensible: without reproof (undeserving of blame or censure).
itching: pleasing, tickling, arousing, stirring.
‘it happens’: from ‘in happe’ (survives in ‘hapless’).
J
Jewess: a female of the Jewish faith.
Jewry: Jewish people; the Jewish religion, that is, Judaism.
joinings: joints.
jointures: junctures, joints.
joying: rejoicing.
jument: a work or yoke-beast, ‘a horse’ (survives in ‘jumentous’).
just: righteous.
justifying: righteousness.
justifyings: ordinances, laws.
K
keep: (v) to care for, take care of.
keeper: guard, jailer; guardian.
keeping: (n) prison, hold, cage; (v) guarding, watching, custody of.
kept: (n) prisoners; (v) guarded, watched; preserved.
kids: young goats.
kin: kindred, family.
kind: nature; type, sort; kindred; offspring or generation.
kindled: caused to burn, ignited.
kindlings: the young of a particular ‘kind’ or family, so ‘offspring’ (survives in ‘kinder-garten’; see ‘–ling’ below).
kindred: relatives; tribes.
knave: boy, male child.
knight: a soldier (remember, this text dates from the 14th century).
knighthood: warfare, combat, battle (see ‘holding knighthood’).
knighthood of heaven: host or army of heaven.
knitches: a number of things tied or knit together, ‘a bundle’ (survives in ‘knitting’).
knowing: (n) knowledge (from ‘kunnyng’; ‘knowing’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
known: (n) one’s acquaintances.
L
laid ambush: laid wait.
language(s): a spiritual language or spiritual speaking; words of speech used by a group to communicate (e.g., ‘the English language’). The “Wycliffe Bible” uses ‘language(s)’ and ‘tongue(s)’ interchangeably for both of these meanings, the context determining which definition applies. Wycliffe’s New Testament follows suit. The KJV uses ‘language’ only for words of speech, but ‘tongue(s)’ for both meanings.
languisheth: obsessed with or dwelling unhealthily upon.
languishings: sicknesses, torments.
languor: weakness; sickness; weariness of mind or body.
latten: a kind of brass hammered into thin sheets, used for making church utensils, such as candlesticks and crosses.
lay (men): uninstructed or un-taught (from ‘lewide’; survives in ‘laity’).
learn: (v) to teach.
learned: taught or instructed.
leave: (n) permission, license.
leave: (v) to let go, send away, dismiss.
leaveful: with permission or leave, ‘permissible’ or ‘lawful’ (‘lawful’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
leavest not: without pause, unceasing.
lecher: a lewd, prurient man.
lechery: uncontrolled sexual activity.
leech: physician (‘blood-letter’; one who treats with leeches).
left: (v) sent away, dismissed, to have let go.
legacy: a commission, that which one is entrusted with, authorized, or commanded to fulfill; that which has been received.
leprous: filled with leprosy.
let: (v) to hinder (!); to allow or permit.
letted: (v) hindered (!); allowed or permitted.
letters: writings, and so, ‘the scriptures’; study, higher learning.
letting: hindering (!).
libel: ‘a little book of forsaking’ or of divorcement (from Latin via Old French; survives in ‘libel: a written statement which damages a person’s reputation’).
lieth: is present with or before, or ‘at hand’.
lifelode: alt. spelling of ‘livelode’ (see below).
light: easy; lit., not heavy, so unburdened, relieved, free from discomfort.
lighten: to give light or to make bright, to illumine, ‘to enlighten’.
lightened: lit up; brought to light, ‘enlightened’.
lightening: illumining, bringing to light, ‘appearing’; making bright.
lighter: easier.
‘-like’: -ly, -ily (i.e., god-like or ‘godly’); as a ..., or like a … (e.g., ‘beast-like’, ‘heathen-like’, ‘heaven-like’, ‘home-like’, ‘Jew-like’).
likeness: similitude, parable, proverb.
likings: pleasures, enjoyments.
lineage: line of descent, ancestry, family, tribe, kindred.
‘-ling’: denoting a person or young animal having the quality or characteristics implied (e.g., ‘comeling’, ‘darling or dear-ling’, ‘duckling’, ‘hireling’, ‘suckling’, ‘underling’, ‘youngling’).
litigious: chiding, quarrelsome (survives in ‘prone to taking legal action’).
little book: see ‘libel’ above.
little master: teacher of young.
livelode: livelihood, sustenance (also spelled ‘lifelode’).
living(s): (n) conduct, way of life.
lo!: behold!
loaves of proposition: ‘bread of the presence (of Yahweh)’; ‘shew-bread’ or ‘showbread’; ‘loaves of the setting/putting forth’ (initially described in Exodus 35:13).
loose: to loosen or undo.
lordship: (v) to rule or have authority over.
lordshipper: (n) one who has the dominion, power and authority – the supremacy – of a lord; the Lord High God.
lordshipping: power or authority over people, ‘ruling’ or ‘governing’.
lose: to destroy (active sense; ‘destroy’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
lost: destroyed (active sense; survives in the sense of “the ship was lost at sea”; ‘destroyed’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
lot: inheritance or fate, destiny (sometimes from ‘sort’).
lot(s): the process of deciding something by a game of chance (survives in ‘lottery’).
lowed: made low, lowered, humbled, abased.
lying: (n) a lie or lies (sometimes replaces ‘leasing’, which is also found in the KJV); reclining.
lying-by: to procreate.
lying-monger: liar (‘liar’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
M
mad: crazy or insane (from ‘wood’; ‘mad’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
madded: made mad or insane.
maddest: ‘art mad’.
made void: nullified; put away or done away.
madness: from ‘woodness’ (‘madness’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
magistrates: rulers of the temple.
make merchandise: commerce, to buy and sell.
make mind: to remember.
make ready: to prepare.
make void: to nullify, to do away with.
mal-ease: ‘bad’ ease, disease, sickness; great discomfort.
male-kind: male human being.
‘man-homicide’: a murderer.
manhood: (hu)manhood or ‘humanity’.
manor: a feudal domain or landed estate; a field or fields.
man-queller: ‘man-killer’, so, executioner or murderer.
manslayer: murderer.
mantle: loose, sleeveless garment worn over other garments.
Maranatha: ‘in the coming of the Lord’.
margarite(s): pearl(s) (survives as ‘Margaret’).
master: teacher (also ‘little master’, ‘under-master’).
masterful asker: officer of the law-court.
maumet: (n) idol, false god (the “Later Version” uses ‘maumet’ and idol interchangeably; derived from a misunderstanding of Islam).
may: to be able to, ‘can’.
meat: eating; dinner, feast.
meddle: (v) to mix.
medley: a mixture.
meed: reward.
meek: (v) to humble or abase oneself (also ‘meeked’, ‘meeking’).
menace: (v) to threaten.
menaces: (n) threats (also ‘menacings’).
menslayers: murderers.
‘mercyable place’: ‘the propitiary’ or ‘mercyseat’.
mercyseat: the lid of the ark of the covenant, fashioned as a throne for the Majesty of God, the Holy of Holies.
mesels: lepers (survives in ‘measles’, the sickness that produces red spots on the skin).
mete: (v) to measure (also ‘meted’, ‘meting’).
metretes: liquid measurement of ancient Greece (1 metrete = 9 gallons).
mild: meek, gentle.
mind: (n) remembrance.
mindful: remembering.
mined: ‘undermined’.
minister: servant.
ministered-under: served under.
ministration: service, ministry.
ministry: service, providing for the needs of others.
minutes: small pieces of money of minuscule value, ‘mites’.
mirth: gaiety, social merriment.
mis-born child: an abnormal birth; an abortion.
misdoer: one who does wrong.
mis-ease: ‘bad ease’ or ‘ill being’, need, want, distress, poverty.
mis-turn: (v) to pervert or to turn wrong.
mite: small coin or sum of money; dust speck or particle (also ‘mites’).
mix: from ‘meddle’ (also ‘mixed’).
mixture: from ‘meddling’.
moist: (v) to water or ‘moisten’; to wash or wet (also ‘moisteth’, ‘moisted’).
moot hall: judgment hall or trial court.
morrowing: morning.
morrowtide: morning.
morsel: small fragment of food.
most: mostly, most of all, especially.
mote: a tiny speck of dust or sand (survives in ‘mite’).
much-fold: manifold.
must needs: of necessity.
must: (n) grape wine.
mustard seed: from ‘seneuey’.
N
napkin: a small piece of towelling (from ‘sudarium or sweating cloth’).
nappeth: to nap or sleep.
nard: spikenard.
natural: from ‘of kind’ or ‘by kind’.
naturally: from ‘kindly’.
nature: from ‘kind’.
near: nearer.
need(s): needed or needful, so necessary, or of necessity; want, that which is necessary for life.
neediness: deprivation, poverty; distress.
new: newly.
niggard: (n) covetous, stingy person (survives in ‘niggardly’; no etymological connection to the racial epithet).
nigh coasted: bordering.
nigh: (adv) near; (v) to approach (also ‘nighed’, ‘nighing’).
nigheth: to approach.
no wise: no way.
nobility: nobleness, honour.
noise: disturbance, uproar.
nol: neck.
none: ‘not one’ (the word ‘no’ before words starting with a vowel, similar to ‘a’/‘an’ before words starting with ‘h’).
not subject (to): not under the power of; unruly, insubordinate, disobedient.
nought: nothing, without existence.
nourish: (v) to nurse or suckle an infant; to bring up or raise.
nourished: nursed; brought up, raised.
nourishing: (v) nursing.
now born: ‘newborn’.
nurse: (v) to suckle; to nourish.
nursing: suckling; nourishing.
O
obligation: pledge, bond, contract.
occasion: pretense, pretext.
odourments: sources of pleasing scents and odours.
of belief: ‘of faith’.
of kind: by nature, naturally.
of: from; for; by; to.
offence: an act of stumbling or ‘sin’; a cause or occasion of sin; a stumblingstone or stumbling-block; to cause insult or make angry; synonymous with ‘hurting’ and ‘spurning’ (each use found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV).
offend: to cause to stumble, sin or fall; to insult, or cause anger or resentment (both uses found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV; sometimes from ‘sclaundre’, though ‘offend’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
office: service or ministry.
old men: forefathers, those in olden times, ‘elders’.
on-putting: putting on.
opportune: from ‘covenable’.
opportunity: sometimes from ‘covenably’, though ‘opportunity’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”.
ordain: to pre-destine; to appoint; to order or decree; to set in order.
ordinance: order or decree; conduct; founding or ordering.
ought: to have a moral duty, or to be obliged, to do something.
ourself: ourselves.
out of belief: out of, or without, faith; disobedient.
out-casting: ‘outcasts’ or exiles; refuse, trash.
over-cloth: survives in ‘overcoat’.
overcome: to conquer or triumph over, to gain mastery of; to be plenteous, to abound.
over-go: to go beyond, to overreach.
‘over-hard keeping of goods’: covetousness.
overlaying: burdening, ‘pressing’ or pressure, dis-ease, trouble, tribulation.
over-led: deceived, seduced, led away.
over-seeming: beyond measurement, ‘most excellent’ (see also ‘above-seeming’).
over-thwart: perverse, head-strong, obstinate, ‘athwart’.
over-waxeth: grows or increases greatly.
owe(th): obligated to or bound to; indebted to; ‘ought’.
P
pale: a pointed stick, stake or pole; a surrounding fence or ‘palisade’.
palsy: paralysis.
parings: scraps, the part ‘pared off’ (survives in ‘paring knife’).
part taking: ‘partaking’.
part: (v) to divide or break into parts; to share, give or impart; to depart or leave.
parter: one who divides.
parting: (v) sharing with; dividing; difference or distinction.
partings: (n) that which is ‘parted’, divided or shared, and so, ‘distributions’ or even ‘gifts’.
pask: Passover (survives in ‘paschal’).
‘pass we’: ‘surpass we’.
pass: (v) to depart or leave.
passible: able to suffer, human, mortal.
passingly: surpassingly.
passion(s): (n) suffering.
passion: (v) to suffer.
pasture(s): (n, v) from ‘lesewe’.
pasturing: from ‘leswynge’.
peaceability: peacefulness, calm (also ‘peaceableness’).
penance: repentance; a rite involving contrition, confession, acceptance of penalties, then absolution.
pence: pennies (pl. of penny).
pens: wings or feathers (survives in ‘pinion: the wing or flight feathers of a bird’ and in ‘pen: a writing instrument originally derived from a feather’).
people of purchasing: people bought or ‘redeemed’ by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
peradventure: perhaps, perchance.
perdition: eternal damnation, hell.
perish: to be lost; to die; to be destroyed (from the Latin, ‘to go away’).
perturbation: to disquiet or disturb greatly, to agitate; to cause confusion.
Pharisees: Jewish sect that emphasized strict adherence to ritual.
physician: a medical doctor (from ‘leech: a blood-letter or one who treats with leeches’).
piety: godliness (from ‘pitee’).
pilgrim: one who journeys, especially to some sacred place; any wanderer or wayfarer.
pilgrimage: long, arduous journey; metaphorically, ‘the Christian walk’.
pious: devout, godly, reverential (from ‘piteous’; also ‘piously’ from ‘piteously’).
plaint: complaint.
pleasance: pleasantness or pleasure.
plenteouslier: more plenteously.
plowing: from ‘eringe’ (‘plough’ (n) found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
plummet: (n) a plumb bob.
pointel: a stylus or writing instrument.
poll: (v) to shave, clip, shear, trim, or cut off the hair.
potentate: (n) an authority or power (from ‘potestate’).
power of the prince: authority.
precellent: primary and excellent.
precept: order or commandment.
prelate: ruler (survives as ‘high-ranking member of the church’).
prepuce: the foreskin; ‘the uncircumcised’, so the heathen or Gentiles.
prescience: foreknowledge.
president: one who ‘presides’ or occupies the seat of power; a governor.
pressing: ‘dis-ease’, overlaying, ‘pressure’.
prevarication: breaking of the law (survives as ‘telling lies’).
pricked: pierced.
pricks: (n) stings.
primacies: first fruits (‘primacy’ survives as ‘the state of being first, as in rank or excellence; the office of an archbishop; the office of the Pope’).
princehood: principality; authority to rule over.
principat: principality.
private(s): truth(s) that can be known only through Divine revelation; ‘mysteries’.
privily: privately, secretly.
privy: private, secret.
proconsul: Roman official with authority over a province or military company; a governor.
procurator: Roman official who served as a provincial or financial administrator; steward of a farm (survives in ‘curator’).
profession: the act of ‘professing’, that is, declaring or avowing; ‘a declaration’.
proffer: to offer.
profiteth: to benefit.
progenitor: forefather or parent.
proper: its or one’s own, personal, particular (found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV; survives in ‘property’).
propitiation: conciliation, atoning or atonement, sacrifice (found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV).
propitiatory: the place of conciliation, the ‘mercyseat’, the throne serving the Majesty of God.
proposition: see ‘loaves of’.
prove: to try or test; approve.
proveth: approveth.
provisions: supply of food, necessities for living.
provost: official having authority over others; a magistrate.
prudence: sound judgment; sagacity.
publican: a Roman tax collector.
publish: to proclaim, to make known publicly.
purpless: seller of purple.
purposing: purpose.
pursue: to persecute or to harass.
purvey: to provide provisions, necessities of life (also ‘purveying’).
purveyance: the act of purveying; that which is supplied (i.e., provisions), ‘the means or way to survive’ (1 Cor. 10:13).
put: to lay down; laid down.
Q
quarternion: a military unit of four men under one’s authority.
queller (man-): one who extinguishes by force, puts down, and so, ‘an executioner’.
querne: hand-mill.
quick: living, alive.
quicken: to make alive, to give or restore life to (also ‘quickened’).
R
rabbi: a ‘master’ or teacher.
raven: (n) robbery; the act of pillaging and plundering;
(adj) rapacious.
raveners: those who pillage, plunder, ravage, take by force.
ravening: ravaging.
reach: to give to, to reach forth or extend to.
ready: available, at hand.
realm: kingdom.
reared: raised.
recapitulation: a summary (from ‘capitale’; found in the Prologue to the “Wycliffe Bible”).
reckest: to have a care or concern for, to heed (survives in ‘reckless’).
recorded: remembered.
recording: making mind of, remembering.
rectus: straight (from Latin).
redeem: to regain possession of by paying a price, to ransom; to pay off and receive back.
reform: to make better; to improve morally, to give up sin; to ‘form again’ or anew, to ‘re-form’.
regeneration: rebirth; spiritual and/or moral renewal.
reliefs: (n) fragments; scraps or leavings of food.
remission: pardon, forgiveness, delivered from debt.
remnants: from ‘reliefs’.
repent: from ‘forethink’ (‘repented’ and ‘repentant’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
replete: full, sated.
repromission: promise.
reproof: (n) rebuke, blame, reproach.
reprovable: reproachable.
reproved: rebuked.
reproves: (n) rebukes, censures.
repugn: oppose, fight (against), resist (survives in ‘repugnant’).
requite: to compensate or repay; to make return to (from ‘quit’).
riddle: (v) to sift.
rightful: righteous; just; right.
rightwise: righteous.
rightwiseness: righteousness.
ripely: readily, hastily.
rising-again: resurrection.
rivelling: wrinkle/ing (‘wrinkle’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
river: from ‘flood’.
rod: staff (‘staves’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”); sceptre.
rubbing: from ‘frotinge’.
rudder: from ‘governail’.
ruddy: tinged with red, rosy.
rude: rough (texture).
rue: (v) to feel sorrow, regret, or remorse for.
ruth: (n) compassion, pity, regret.
S
sackcloth: from ‘sack’ or ‘sak’.
sacrileger: one who commits sacrilege.
safe: saved from sin, ‘salvation’; made whole.
sampler: ‘exemplar’ (from Old French (‘en)saumpler’).
satchel: a small handbag.
satisfaction: from ‘aseethe’ (‘satisfaction’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
savour: (n) to understand or perceive (survives in ‘savoir-faire’); odour; taste.
savoured: seasoned, made flavourful.
savourest: (v) to think upon, perceive, or to understand (also ‘savoureth’).
science: knowledge.
scribe: temple copyist, interpreter of scriptures.
scrip: a small bag, wallet, or purse.
seat: seat of government, and so, ‘a throne’.
secureness: security.
seek: search.
seemliness: from ‘honesty’.
seemly: from ‘honest’.
semblance: likeness, outward appearance, countenance.
sendal: a piece of fine linen or silk.
seniors: elders.
servage: servitude, bondage.
service: ministry, office.
set: put, ordained, appointed.
shame: (v) to be ashamed of.
shamed: (v) ashamed, was ashamed of (‘ashamed’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
shamefastness: shamefaced, showing shame or bashfulness.
shames: (n) reproofs, rebukes.
shed: to pour (out) (also ‘shedded’).
shewbread: unleavened bread displayed in the Jewish temple and dedicated to God (see also ‘loaves of’ proposition’).
shined: shone (p.t. of shine; found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV).
shogged: shaken, jogged, tossed.
shortly: in few words, briefly.
showbread: see ‘shewbread’ above.
shrewd: depraved, wicked.
sick: weak (British usage); unwell.
sickness: weakness, frailty (British usage); illness.
siege: seat, and so, a throne (from Latin, via Old French, meaning ‘to sit’).
sign: token or miracle.
signal: sign.
signet: mark or seal.
silveren: made of silver (suffix survives in words like ‘golden’).
similtude: a likeness or parable.
simulacra: idols.
simulacrum: idol.
simulations: ‘feignings’, hypocrisies, pretence.
Sire: ‘Sir’, form of address to a superior.
sistren: sisters.
slack: (v) to slacken or make loose. slake: (v) to lessen the intensity of, ‘to loosen’.
slander: (v) to injure with malicious, false utterances.
slates: plates or tiles of slate used for roofing.
slough: a bog, or place of deep mud.
smaragdus: Greek for emerald.
smite: (v) to strike.
smiter: fighter.
snatch (up): to seize or catch (from ‘ravyshe’; also ‘snatched’, ‘snatching’).
snub: to reproach or reprove.
solace: (n) comfort in grief; (v) to soothe.
solar: loft or upper chamber (British usage; somewhat survives in ‘solarium’).
soldiers: from ‘soudis’ (see also ‘wages’).
somewhat: something.
sooth: true; truth.
soothfast: truthful.
soothly: truly.
sopped up: to take up by absorp-tion, and so, fig., ‘swallowed’.
sore: greatly or in high degree, intensely.
sorry: aggrieved; regretful.
sort(s): class, set, group, or type of something; kind(s); lot or inheritance.
soul: mind, reason; understanding; life.
sovereign: leader; one who exercises authority over others.
species: kinds or sorts (of).
speedeth: (v) to profit or benefit; is expedient (survives in term ‘Godspeed: best wishes/good fortune’ and in ‘expedient’ and ‘expedite’).
speedful: expedient.
spoil: (v) to impair or destroy the value of; to rob or to take from by force; to be stripped of (also ‘spoiling’).
spot: stain or blemish, and so, ‘a sin’.
spousals: weddings.
spouse: bridegroom; a partner in marriage, male or female.
spoused: (v) espoused.
spousess: wife; bride.
sprinkle off: to scatter or shake off (from ‘sprengen’).
spurning: ‘to kick with the foot’(synonymous with ‘hurting’, ‘offence’ and ‘stumbling’).
stable: sure, firmly established, fixed, steadfast, enduring.
stablish: to found, ‘establish’; fix, confirm (also ‘stablished’).
stably: firmly in place, fixed, not easily moved.
state: status, standing; condition.
stater: gold or silver coin of ancient Greece.
staves: staffs.
stead: place.
steadfast: firmly fixed in faith, constant.
stole: a long, narrow band of decorated cloth worn around the neck and over the shoulders; a vestment; a long, loose robe.
stony sea: rough, hard sea, waves hitting like rocks.
store up: include, enclose (from ‘enstore’).
strait: narrow.
strand: river.
strengths: ‘strong places’ and so, strongholds.
strife: (n) struggle, fight.
strive: (v) to struggle, fight, or contend with.
strives: (n) contention, fighting, struggles (also ‘strivings’).
strove: struggled, fought.
stumbling: occasion or cause of sin or a spiritual fall, and so, ‘an offence’ (archaic meaning).
sturdinesses: indignations (‘angry tempers’).
stylus: a writing instrument used on clay or wax (from ‘pointel’).
subject (to): under the control or power of; in control or orderly.
subjection: the state of being brought under the power of another.
substance(s): goods of this world.
suckling-frère: foster brother.
sudarium: napkin; towelling; cloth used to cover the face of a corpse (pl. sudaria).
sue: to follow (survives in ‘pursue’, ‘ensue’; ‘follow’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
suffer: to permit or to give leave to; to endure.
suffice: to be enough.
sufficence: ‘sufficiency’, contentment, having enough.
suitable: appropriate, fitting, in season, opportune, (from ‘covenable’).
suitably: ‘from ‘covenably’.
supping thing: something to eat.
supplement: provision for what is lacking, ‘a supply’.
surpass: to exceed (from ‘pass’).
surpassingly: exceedingly (from ‘passingly’).
sustain: to endure; to bear with.
sweating cloth: a small piece of towelling (sense survives in ‘sweatshirt’, ‘sweater’).
sweven: dream; vision.
T
take keep: take care.
take recording: am reminded of.
take: (v) to receive; to bring; to deliver or give up to; to commit or entrust; to lay hold of or seize.
taken: received; delivered or given up to; seized; betrayed (Luke 21:16).
talent: in ancient Greece, a weight or unit of gold or silver, often in coin form.
tares: weeds that grow among wheat (also called ‘cockles’ and ‘darnels’).
tarry: to linger or remain longer than expected.
temporal: temporary; earthly.
termineth: to limit; to determine. testament: a covenant.
thankings: thanksgiving, thanks (also called ‘graces’).
that: that which, or that what.
the thirsting: those who thirst.
the which: who, whom; what, which.
them: themselves.
themself: themselves.
therefore: for this reason.
thereto: to this thing.
therf loaves: unleavened bread.
therf: without souring.
thither: in that direction; to that place.
thyme (tree): misspelling of thyine (tree).
tiding: a report or information, news.
tillers: those who work the soil to produce crops, ‘farmers’.
tithes: 1/10th of annual income given to representatives of God.
to be before: to lead the way.
to little charge: ‘to little care for’, and so, to neglect, disregard or even despise.
to: of; for.
token(ing): visible sign; miracle.
tongue(s): spiritual language or spiritual speaking, ‘strange language not understood’; words of speech used by a group to communi-cate (e.g., ‘one’s native tongue’). Wycliffe’s New Testament follows the “Wycliffe Bible”, as does the KJV, in using ‘tongue(s)’ for both meanings (see ‘language(s)’).
took: received; delivered or gave over to; seized.
‘to pieces’: implied in such verbs as ‘to-drawe’, to-bruise’, ‘to-rente’, ‘to-powder’.
tother: the next; other (‘other’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
transfigure: to change the outward appearance of; to transform; to glorify.
translate: to transform; to change; to carry across or over, to pass from (one side to the other).
translation: change or transformation.
transmigration: to migrate or move from one country to another.
travail: (n) toil or labour; (v) to toil or labour; to trouble.
travailest: to trouble.
treat: (v) to handle something physically; to ‘handle’ (a topic) with one’s mind, and so to discuss or dispute or study (survives in ‘treatise’).
treated: discussed, disputed, handled or dealt with (a topic).
treating: considering, discussing, disputing, dealing with (a topic).
tribune: a magistrate.
trow: to believe or suppose.
trump: (n) trumpet.
trumped: trumpeted.
trust: (n) confidence, boldness (from ‘trow’; ‘trust’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
trustily: confidently, boldly.
turds: dung.
turn again: to return (also ‘turned again’, ‘turning again’).
turned: converted.
twain: two.
U
unbelief: disobedience.
unbelieveful: ‘full of unbelief’, so not believing in; disobedient; unbelievable.
uncharged: discharged, unloaded.
unchastity: lechery.
uncontinence: unrestrained and uncontrolled (sexual) behaviour, ‘incontinence’ (also ‘uncontinent’).
uncorrupt: ‘incorrupt’, immortal (also ‘uncorrupted’).
uncorruption: ‘incorruption’, and so immortality (also ‘uncorruptible’, ‘uncorruptibility’).
unction: the act of anointing with oil.
undeadliness: immortality (‘immortality’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
undeadly: immortal.
undefouled: undefiled.
under colour of: false appearance or pretence.
under-brought in: stealthily brought in.
under-delved: under-dug, or dug under.
under-lay: to submit or subject oneself to.
under-master: schoolmaster, teacher.
under-minister: to serve under (also ‘under-ministering’).
under-putted: put under, laid down or risked (one’s life).
under-sailed: sailing with sails spread.
under-serving: serving under or together with.
under-set: given to the undercurrent or under-tow.
understand: (v) to have mind of, to think, reflect or meditate upon, to consider.
under-yoked: made tame.
undo: (v) to destroy; to deny the truth of (1 John 4:3) (also ‘undoeth’).
unequity: wickedness, injustice, ‘iniquity’.
unfaithful: ‘not full of faith’, so, unbelieving, out of the faith.
unfiled: undefiled.
unfouled: ‘undefouled’ or undefiled.
unfruitous: unfruitful (survives in ‘unfructuous’).
unhaply: unluckily; unfortunately.
unhonoured: to not honour, to dishonour (also ‘unhonourest’).
unknow: to not know, to be ignorant of (also ‘unknoweth’).
unknowing: (n) ‘not knowing’, so ignorance; (adj.) ignorant; (adv.) ignorantly.
unknowingness: the state of ‘not knowing’ or ignorance (‘ignorance’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
unlearned: untaught or uninstructed.
unleaveful: without ‘leave’, license or permission, so impermissible or ‘unlawful’.
unlettered: without ‘letters’ or a degree, study or formal education.
unnarrable: unable to be told out, ‘unspeakable’ (survives in ‘narrate: to tell or describe’).
unnobility: ‘ignobility’, dishonour, baseness.
unnoble: ‘ignoble’; dishonour; base (also ‘unnobleness’).
unobedience: disobedience.
unordinately: ‘inordinately’, out of good order, unruly, disorderly.
unpeaceable: agitated, unruly, disorderly (also ‘unpeaceably’).
unpiety: ‘impiety’, ungodliness.
unpious: ‘impious’.
unpliable: unbowing.
unportable: unable to bear or carry.
unprudent: ‘imprudent’, foolish.
unquieted: disquieted (see ‘unpeaceable’).
unreprovable: unreproachable.
unrightwiseness: unrighteousness.
unseemly: from ‘unhonest’.
unspotted: without stain or blame, so, ‘sinless’.
unstable: ‘moving from place to place’, so, without a home (1 Cor. 4:11).
unsteadfast: weak.
unsteadfastness: weak in belief.
unwashen: unwashed.
unwemmed: unspotted, without blemish or fault, so, ‘sinless’.
unwisdom: ignorance; foolishness.
unwitting: (n) ‘not knowing’, ignorance.
unwitty: without wit (without mind or reason or understanding), and so, unwise or foolish.
unworshippest: to dishonour (see ‘unhonourest’).
up-bearing: bearing up.
upbraid: to reproach severely.
us self: ourselves.
usuries: interest (usually excessive) paid on money.
utter-more: ‘outer-more’, utmost.
V
venge: (v) to avenge; to revenge.
vengeance: plagues (Apoc. 15:1, 21:9, 22:18); retribution.
venger: avenger; one who takes revenge.
verily: truly; indeed.
very: true.
vestments: one of the ritual garments of the clergy.
victualed: (v) provided with ‘victuals’ (food) and other provisions for living (from Middle French ‘vitaille’; survives in ‘vittles’).
vinery: a vineyard.
vinolent: given to much wine, drunken.
virtue: power, strength, might; authority; moral rectitude.
virtues: mighty powers; ‘works of power’ or miracles; moral excellence.
voice: sound, noise.
void: empty; null.
voided: made void.
volatiles: birds; ‘enfatted’ feast offerings (survives in ‘volatile: flighty’).
volupties: pleasures or delights (of a sensual nature), lusts of life (survives in ‘voluptuous’).
W
wages: (n) those who are paid to serve and fight, and so, ‘soldiers’.
wagged: quickly moved from side to side.
wake: (v) to awaken; to be alert or to watch for; to stand watch.
waking: (n) a watch or duty period, usually 4 hours; watchful.
wallowed: rolled.
wan: pale from sickness or injury.
wander: to walk; to travel.
ward: prison, prison cell; hold for prisoners.
warded: guarded (survives in ‘prison warden’).
wardings: fortifications, strong-holds; prisons.
warily: cautiously, carefully.
warn: to notify, advise or admonish of possible harm; to proclaim or state without allowing dissent; to order under threat of penalty, and so, ‘to command’ (synonym of ‘announce’).
washen: washed.
waste: to destroy, come to nought, consume (also ‘wasteth’).
wasted: destroyed; devastated; consumed.
wax: (v) to grow or to increase; to become.
wayward: willful, untoward, following one’s own wanton or depraved inclinations.
ween: (v) to suppose or guess; to think.
well: good.
wellfully: ‘fully well’, so success-fully, prosperously, ‘healthfully’.
wellsomely: successfully, prosperously, ‘healthfully’ (suffix survives in ‘handsomely’).
wem: spot, stain, blemish, fault, and so, ‘sin’ (survives in ‘wen’, a benign skin tumour or cyst).
what: why; that.
whelps: young dogs.
whereof: of or from what; of which or of whom.
whereto: why; to what place or end.
which: who, whom, whose; what.
whichever: whomever.
whither: to which or what place; where.
Whitsuntide: the 7th Sunday after Easter, ‘Pentecost’; also the week that follows ‘Whitsunday’.
who: which.
whole: wholesome.
wield: to control or to rule; to manage.
will: (n) pleasure; wish, desire; mind.
willful: willful(ly) or willing.
willing: ‘willingly’.
wily: sly, cunning.
win: gain.
winning: wealth, material or financial gain.
wintern: (v) to dwell (in a place) during winter.
wise: way of doing, manner.
wist: knew (‘wist’ and ‘knew’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV).
wit: (n) mind; understanding, insight, intelligence.
witen: (v) we/they know (‘witen’ and ‘know’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV).
withhold: to retain or hold back (also ‘withholdeth’).
withholden: withheld.
withinforth: ‘within’, inside.
without: (adv) outside.
without: (prep) from ‘outakun’ or ‘take out’.
without desert: without deserving (of special privilege).
without discipline: without learning, uninformed.
withoutforth: ‘without’, outside.
without letters: without a degree or formal education.
withstand: to resist or oppose (also ‘withstandeth’).
witless: mindless; foolish.
witness: (v) to testify.
witnessing(s): (n) testimony/ testimonies.
wits: minds; understanding.
witting: knowing.
womb: belly.
won: gained.
wont: habit, personal custom.
word of belief: ‘word of faith’.
work(s) of power: miracle(s) (from ‘virtue(s)’; ‘power’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible”).
worlds of worlds: eternity, ‘forever and ever’ (also found in the “Later Version” as ‘world of world’ and ‘world of worlds’).
worlds: for ever.
worship: (v) to pay homage to, to venerate; to adore or admire excessively (in the “Wycliffe Bible”, as per British usage, ‘worship’ and ‘honour’ are interchangeable; in Wycliffe’s New Testament, modern usage is followed to avoid confusion).
worshipful: ‘honourable’, worthy of respect (British usage).
worthy: of worth or value.
worts: herbs.
wot: (v) I know (‘wot’ and ‘know’ found in the “Wycliffe Bible” and the KJV).
wounds: (n) affliction, ‘plagues’ (Luke 7:21; Apoc. 18:4, 8).
wrath: (n) rage, anger, indignation.
wrathed: angered or made angry, and so, ‘provoked’.
wrathing: angering or making angry, and so, ‘provoking’, or ‘a provocation’.
wreathed: twisted and turned (from ‘writhe’).
wrenched: violently twisted and pulled (from ‘debraided’/‘to-braided’; also ‘wrenching’).
wretchednesses: miseries.
wroth: furious, filled with anger.
wrought: worked.
Y
yard: enclosed piece of ground; a garden (from Old German ‘3erde: yard/garden’; see ‘garden’).
yield: (n) reward; (v) to give or render to; to reward.
you: yourselves.
youngling: young person.
yourself: yourselves.