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Definition of Middle English
1. Noun. English from about 1100 to 1450.
Specialized synonyms: East Midland, West Midland, Northern, Kentish, Southwestern, West Saxon
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
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 ..."
Other Resources:
