Definition of Middle English

1. Noun. English from about 1100 to 1450.


Definition of Middle English

1. Proper noun. The ancestor language of Modern English, spoken in England and parts of Scotland (where it became Lowland Scots) from about 1100 AD to 1500 AD. It developed from Anglo-Saxon, also called Old English, with heavy influence from French and Latin after the Norman invasion. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Middle English

Mid East
Midas
Midas touch
Middle-earth
Middle Ages
Middle Armenian
Middle Breton
Middle Chinese
Middle Dutch
Middle Earth
Middle East
Middle Eastern
Middle Easterner
Middle England
Middle Englander
Middle English (current term)
Middle French
Middle Greek
Middle High German
Middle Irish
Middle Kingdom
Middle Korean
Middle Latin
Middle Low German
Middle Norwegian
Middle Paleolithic
Middle Persian
Middle Watut
Middle Welsh
Middle West

Literary usage of Middle English

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature by Anna Lorraine Guthrie, Marion A. Knight, H.W. Wilson Company, Estella E. Painter (1920)
"Middle English language and literature—Cent. Note on the Lamentation of Mary. ... Mod Philol 14:255-6 Ag '16 Notes on passages of Old and Middle English. ..."

2. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"So thoroughly modern did its form consequently become that we might almost call it Modern English, and say that the Middle English stage of the northern ..."

3. A Short History of English Literature by George Saintsbury (1898)
"CHAPTER II FIRST Middle English PERIOD 1200-1250 Layamon's Brut—The ... and interesting—which compose the first growth of Middle English literature, ..."

4. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and (1910)
"Transition Old English (" Serai-Saxon ") Early Middle English . . . (Normal) Middle English . Late and Transition Middle English . Early Modern or Tudor ..."

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