Definition of Old English

1. Noun. English prior to about 1100.

Exact synonyms: Anglo-saxon
Generic synonyms: English, English Language
Specialized synonyms: West Saxon, Anglian, Jutish, Kentish
Derivative terms: Anglo-saxon

Definition of Old English

1. Proper noun. (linguistics history) The ancestor language of Modern English, also called '''Anglo-Saxon''', spoken in most of Britain from about 400 to 1100. ¹

2. Proper noun. (context: generally) Archaic English speech or writing, or an imitation of this. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Old English

Old Catholic Church
Old Chinese
Old Church Slavic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Colony
Old Cornish
Old Dart
Old Delhi
Old Dominion
Old Dominion State
Old Dutch
Old Earth Creationism
Old East Slavic
Old East Slavonic
Old Egyptian
Old English (current term)
Old English Sheepdog
Old English Sheepdogs
Old English sheepdog
Old Etonian
Old Faithful
Old Father Thames
Old Father Time
Old Frankish
Old French
Old Frisian
Old Georgian
Old Glory
Old Greek
Old Harry

Literary usage of Old English

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

1. Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Samuel Thurber (1896)
"This knowledge will enable the student to read any of the dialects of the old English period, and will also serve as a foundation for the study of Modern ..."

2. The Cumulative Book Index by H.W. Wilson Company (1911)
"Old English Christmas. See Irving, W. Old English houses. Fea, A. *$3. imp. ... Old English stories from "A wonder book of old romance." Darton, FJH 50c. ..."

3. The Cambridge History of English Literature by Adolphus William Ward, Alfred Rayney Waller (1907)
"CHAPTER IV Old English CHRISTIAN POETRY ONLY two names emerge from the anonymity which shrouds the bulk of Old English Christian poetry, namely, ..."

4. The English Historical Review by Mandell Creighton, Justin Winsor, Samuel Rawson Gardiner, Reginald Lane Poole, John Goronwy Edwards (1893)
"A VOLUME OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIE THE Old English MANOR : a Study in English By ..."

5. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and (1910)
"The latter can be best summarized in the words of Dr Henry Sweet in his History of English Sounds:* "Old English is the period of Juli inflections ..."

6. The Connoisseur by Town, Bonnell Thornton, George Colman (1904)
"Curiously enough only two out of the twenty or thirty show-cases are devoted to old English glass, the rest being filled with examples of glass made in ..."

7. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing by Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, Albert Hauck (1911)
"... 1878; CJ Abbey, Religious Thought in Old English Verse, London and New York, 1892; TW Hunt, Ethical Teachings in Old English Literature, New I. History. ..."

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