English words first attested in Chaucer

English words first attested in Chaucer, or special manuscript words of Chaucer, are a set of about two thousand English words whose first use found in existing manuscripts is credited to Geoffrey Chaucer. This does not necessarily mean that he was the person to introduce these words into English, but that the earliest extant uses of these words are found in Chaucerian manuscripts. Many of the words were already in everyday speech in 14th-century England (especially London). The claim is that these words are found for the first time in written manuscripts where he introduced them in one of his extensive works from 1374 to 1400 as the first author to use these particular words. Many of Chaucer's special manuscript words from the 14th century are used today:
"absent, accident, add, agree, bagpipe, border, box, cinnamon, desk, digestion, dishonest, examination, finally, flute, funeral, galaxy, horizon, infect, ingot, latitude, laxative, miscarry, nod, obscure, observe, outrageous, perpendicular, Persian, princess, resolve, rumour, scissors, session, snort, superstitious, theatre, trench, universe, utility, vacation, Valentine, veal, village, vulgar, wallet, and wildness."
Etymology.
Christopher Cannon, in "The Making of Chaucer's English", gives a complete detailed work on the etymology of Chaucer's special manuscript words and references the "Middle English Dictionary" ("MED") definitions and etymology of each of these words. He points out that the "MED" does not give details on the etymology of many of Chaucer's derived words, including many compounds, some participial adjectives, and most gerunds. Cannon also points out that, while the Oxford English Dictionary lists Chaucer as the "first cited author" of these words, it also is mostly silent on the etymologies of these particular derived words. Cannon furnishes a complete list of Chaucer's special manuscript words with their etymology.
Historian Albert Baugh points out that some of Chaucer's aureate words came from Latin or French origin. Some of Chaucer's aureate words like "laureate, mediation," and "oriental" eventually became a part of everyday English. Baugh points out that the innovations of word development into common speech and everyday usage, such as these Chaucer words, is of considerable interest in the history of style.
List.
Below is a complete list of the 1,977 Chaucer's special manuscript words that are first found in the existing manuscripts below as listed in the Oxford English Dictionary as being the "first cited author." Some now have different spellings and others are given the "root" word definition. Some of these words are now dated or obsolete. These manuscript words first found written in Chaucer's work, from "The Canterbury Tales" and other of his publications as shown below, were published in the 14th century.
"The Canterbury Tales".
"The Canterbury Tales" is a collection of tales written sometime after 1373, with 'sondry folk' that resemble Boccaccio's stories of "The Decameron" of fleeing nobles.
General Prologue.
The "General Prologue" introduces the tellers of the tales, with much wry and subtle social commentary.
" acate, affile, alight, ambler, army, arrive, bagpipe, begster, borax, bourdon, bracer, bream, cape, ceruse, chape, clasp, cordial, dagger, debtless, digestible, dormant, Flandrish, foot-mantle, foster, gaud, hostelry, householder, in, jingle, knob, licentiate, line, luce, magic, magician, marrowbone, mercenary, miscarry, moral, pardoner, parvis, patent, perse, session, significavit, stew, wallet, whistling "
The Knight's Tale.
"The Knight's Tale" introduces many typical aspects of knighthood such as courtly love and moral issues.
"alan, attourne, breastplate, broid, buckle, cerrial, chaas, Circe, citrine, clottered, collared, execute, expel, expulsive, feminie, fluttery, funeral, gigge, holm, howl, huntress, intellect, kemp, lacing, laxative, Lucina, melancholic, menacing, mishap, mortal, mover, murmur, murmuring, muzzle, naker, narcotic, nymph, obsequy, obstacle, opie, opposite, oyez, parament, party, perturb, pharmacy, plain, portraiture, possibility, princess, progression, refuge, renting, returning, save, saving, serie, shouting, smiler, strangle, strangling, tester, thoroughfare, turret, vanishing, variation, vital, vomit, whippletree, winged"
The Miller's Tale.
The Miller's Tale is told by a drunken miller to "quite" (requite) The Knight's Tale. The word "quite" here means to make repayment for a service – telling stories.
" almagest, bragget, chant, cinnamon, fart, forge, haunch-bone, interrogation, keek, kneading, kneading-trough, lab, mislie, out, pearl, Pilate, piping, shelf, slumber, swive, tub, very, vere, watchet "
The Reeve's Tale.
The Reeve's Tale is about two clerks tricking a miller. This tale is possibly based on Boccaccio's sixth story of the ninth day (IX.6) in "The Decameron."
" bodkin, bolt, chime, derere, easement, grass time, halfway, jossa, messuage, mullock, popper, quack, sack, Sheffield, thick and thin, varnish "
The Cook's Tale.
The Cook's Tale is a tale of an apprentice named Perkins who is fond of drinking and dancing. He ultimately is released from his master and moves in with a friend. This friend's wife is a prostitute. The story becomes more 'seedy', continuing the downward trend of the preceding tales.
"bribe, convertible, galliard, Harry, Hodge,"
"louke, prenticehood"
The Man of Law's Tale.
The Man of Law's Tale is a story about a Christian princess named Constance. She is to marry a Syrian Sultan on condition that he convert to Christianity. His mother gets involved and sets her adrift at sea.
" constabless, crone, dilatation, erect, femininity, feminity, man of law, mortally, motive, muse, peace, seriously, victorious, wrack "
The Wife of Bath's Tale.
The Wife of Bath's Tale is a tale about marriage. Scholars have associated this story as one of the so-called "marriage group" of Chaucer tales.
" annex, ascendant, ba, bum, bumble, caterwaul, chose, disfigure, Ecclesiast, inclination, lure, Martian, peace, preamble, preambulation, resemblance, reveller, sip, spaniel, squire, stubborn, taur, vacation"
The Friar's Tale.
The Friar's Tale is a satirical attack on the profession of summoner.
" approver, bribe, bribery, determinate, flattering, foal, rebeck "
The Summoner's Tale.
The Summoner's Tale is a tale in defense of the satirical attack by the Friar.
" acceptable, chirt, dagon, demoniac, demonstrative, Dives, equally, pismire, reverberation, spence, swarm, tip, trip "
The Clerk's Tale.
The Clerk's Tale is the story of Griselda, a young woman whose husband tests her loyalty.
" amble, archwife, Chichevache, constant, dishonest, frowning, gaze, laureate, marquisess, mazedness, proem "
The Merchant's Tale.
The Merchant's Tale reflects Boccaccio's "Decameron" seventh day in his ninth tale. Chaucer's tale is a sexually explicit story.
" a-noon, arc, bedstraw, brotelness, court-man, crake, hippocras, houndfish, ordinate, preen, Priapus, procreation, skink, sole, struggle, superlative, veal, vernage, visage "
The Squire's Tale.
The Squire's Tale is a tale of the Squire who is the Knight's son. The tale is an epic romance about a novice warrior and lover with more enthusiasm than experience. It is quite explicit and descriptive.
" albe, digestion, exaltation, feastly, heronsew, Pegasus, peregrine, plumage, poleyn, prolixity, prospection, prospective, resound, serve, Tartar, Tatar, trench, trill "
The Franklin's Tale.
The Franklin's Tale focuses on issues of providence, truth, and generosity. A franklin was a medieval landowner.
" alnath, Armorica, arrayed, begged, begeth, collect, considering, declination, desk, equation, expanse, falconer, faring, Nowell, opposition, Parnassus, proportional, rigour, superstitious "
The Physician's Tale.
The Physician's Tale is a domestic drama about the relationship between a daughter and her father.
" award, definitive, notable, vicar general "
The Pardoner's Tale.
The Pardoner's Tale is a tale in the form of a moral example.
" bet, cinque, cinq, clink, corny, corpus, domination, envelop, fen, Galianes, policy, rioter, saffron, sane, village "
The Shipman's Tale.
The Shipman's Tale is similar to some of Boccaccio's stories in his Decameron and tells the story of a stingy merchant, his greedy wife and her lover.
" creance, porteous, score "
The Prioress's Tale.
"The Prioress's Tale" story is of a child martyr killed by Jews.
" outcry, sold "
The Tale of Sir Thopas.
The Tale of Sir Thopas is told by the narrator of the frame story of the Tales, presented unflatteringly as an awkward, reserved person. It is a parody of grandiose Gallic romances. The narrator is interrupted by the Host before the story is finished.
" amble, piercing, poppet"
The Tale of Melibee.
"The Tale of Melibee", told by the narrator of the frame story, consists largely of a debate between Melibee and his wife on how to seek redress for a violent crime.
" accidental, accomplish, annoyful, anoyful, arbitration, blameful, brigue, chincher, chinchery, commit, counterwait, damnably, desiring, edifice, especial, estable, examination, examining, formal, garnison, hotchpotch, information, mishappy, persevere, pertinent, retain, withholding "
The Monk's Tale.
The Monk's Tale is a collection of seventeen short stories on the theme of tragedy. These are of Lucifer, Adam, Samson, Hercules, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Zenobia, Pedro of Castile, Peter I of Cyprus, Bernabò Visconti, Ugolino of Pisa, Nero, Holofernes, Antiochus, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Croesus. The Monk's Tale "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium" of these illustrious men is modeled after Boccaccio's "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium" of illustrious men.
" afear, annunciate, appurtenant, armless, centaur, Cerberus, clubbed, consecrate, conspiracy, contributary, cursedly, customance, custumance, hexameter, humblehede, importable, leonine, lim-rod, misery, misgovernance, monster, morality, Occident, orient, officer, Persian, pompous, precept, proverb, Septentrion, size, sperm "
The Nun's Priest's Tale.
"The Nun's Priest's Tale of the Cock and the Hen, Chanticleer and Partlet" poem is a vigorous and comical beast fable and mock epic.
" aha, apoplexy, catapuce, centaury, cholera, chuck, clinking, cottage, digestive, embattled, fortunate, fumitory, herb Ive, jade, jet, laureole, poop, reverse, tame, tiptoe "
The Second Nun's Tale.
The Second Nun's Tale tells the story of Saint Cecilia.
" chasteness, eternal, noble, oppose, oppress, outer, preface, prefect, proceed, rote, soul, trine "
The Canon's Yeoman's Tale.
The Canon's Yeoman's Tale is an attack on alchemists.
" ablution, amalgam, ammoniac, argol, arsenic, blunder, bole, calcination, calcining, cered, chalk-stone, citrination, clergial, coagulate, corrosive, crude, cucurbit, elixir, fermentation, fusible, gris, hayne, hazelwood, induration, ingot, introduction, lamp, luna, lunary, magnesia, malleable, mollification, orpiment, pellitory, porphyry, proffered, prowl, rap, rehearsal, relent, rosary, sal, sluttish, sol, sublime, sublimed, tartar, test, vitriol "
The Manciple's Tale.
The Manciple's Tale is a story of a purchasing agent for a law court telling a fable about Phoebus Apollo and his pet crow.
" affect, bottle, cock, nod, palled, python, rackleness, textual, titleless "
The Book of the Duchess.
The Book of the Duchess is a poem on the death of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster and the first wife of John of Gaunt.
" aside, bagge, bear "
The Parson's Tale.
The Parson's Tale is a prose treatise on virtuous living.
" annoyance, appertain, ardour, ardor, arrogant, barring, bending, castle, closure, clotheless, consideration, contract, contumacy, create, curiousness, cutted, dedicate, departed, dishonesty, durable, elation, embracing, emprise, eschew, furring, gabber, hernia, homicide, homily, hostler, humiliation, impudent, manslaughter, material, mistrest, mortification, mystery, natural law, nigromancian, observe, ordure, ours, paling, parting, pax, perdurable, performing, platly, pounced, pouncing, raffle, replenish, retraction, slumbery, somnolence, springer, sticking, strangeness, sustenant, talker, thunderclap, total, trey, uncharitably "
Parlement of Foules.
The Parliament of Fowls is a love poem associated with Valentine's Day. Many claim Chaucer is the mythmaker of the concept as we know it today.
" abstinent, bedside, blossomed, cackling, Cupid, disfigurate, dishevel, disobeisant, entitle, facund, formel, formal, horologe, messagery, mirthless, tercel, tiercel, tercelet, tiercelet, uncommitted, untressed, valence, Valentine, west "
The Romaunt of the Rose.
The Romaunt of the Rose is an allegorical dream, in which the narrator receives advice from the god of love on gaining his lady's favor, her love being symbolized by a rose.
" absent, communably, forwelk, fresh, fur, galantine, guerdon, habit, householding, jacounce, jagounce, jargon, jocund, lambskin, lightsome, lozenge, mansuete, masonry, mavis, medlar, mendicity, mendience, miscoveting, misway, mourning black, muid, nock, non-certain, obscure, overgilt, outwine, outstretch, outsling, palasin, papelardy, par coeur, parochial, patter, praise, prill, prime temps, Proteus, quail-pipe, racine, ravisable, recreandise, refraining, reft, resemblable, return, reverie, ribanding, rideled, riverside, roin, roinous, rose-leaf, sailour, Sarsenish, satin, savorous, scutcheon, seemlihead, shutting, slitter, smallish, snort, squirrel, suckeny, tassel, terin, thick-set, thread, timbester, tissue, tress, tretis, villainsly, volage, waterside, well-arrayed, well begone, well beseen, well-fed, wyndre "
The House of Fame.
The House of Fame is a love poem based on works by Ovid and Virgil. The allegorical poem consists of a dream that journeys to two temples, "The House of Fame" and "The House of Rumour" which are various aspects of truth and falsehood.
" accustomance, check, act, agreeable, airish, appearance, arrivage, arrival, assail, babery, blaze, burned, cadence, casually, celestial, clarion, congealed, conservative, corbet, cornemuse, covercle, crowding, dear-bought, desesperat, dissimulation, doucet, dowset, ducat, duration, encumbrous, existence, feminine, fouldre, fumigation, galaxy, gig, greenish, harmony, Hebraic, herald, herd-groom, herewithal, humble, inclined, inclining, intermeddle, lee, lilting, masty, Milky Way, minstrelly, misgovernment, ray, renovelance, rumble, scissors, signal, spring, stellify, sorceress, sweynt, syllable, tewel, tuel, tinned, unshut, upper "
Boece.
Boece is Chaucer's work derived from "The Consolation of Philosophy", a Latin work originally written by the Roman Christian philosopher Boethius around AD 524.
" abashing, accordable, add, address, adjection, adjoust, adjudge, administer, admonishing, admonition, agreeability, agreeably, albeit, alien, all-utterly, amenuse, amenusing, amoved, annoying, annoyously, anointed, arbitry, Arcturus, ardent, armourer, asperness, assigned, astoning, attaste, attemper, attemperance, attention, auster, autumn, awaiter, beholder, bespot, betiding, biting, blandishing, blissfulness, border, byname, Caurus, cavern, celebrable, centre, center, coemption, coetern, commonality, commove, complish, compotent, compound, comprend, compress, conject, conjoin, conjunction, conjuration, consequent, conservation, consular, contagious, continuation, contrary, convenient, corollary, corrige, Corybant, credible, declaring, decreet, defeat, definish, delicate, delie, delye, deluge, demonstration, despoiling, destinable, destinal, differing, disarm, discording, discourse, disincrease, disordinance, dispensation, dispense, dissolve, distempre, distrait, divide, divination, division, dull, durability, during, eager, echinus, egality,"
"empoisoning, emprent, enbaissing, enchafe, enchantress, encharge, endamage, endark, enduring, enhance, enlace, ensampler, entach, entech, entalent, environing, eschaufe, establish, estimation, eternity, everyday, eve-star, evidently, exceed, exempt, exerce, exercitation, exiling, fellness, fellowship, felonous, festivally, fleeing, flitting, fluttering, foleye, forline, formly, fortuit, fortunel, fortunous, frounce, furthest, gaping, gastness, geometrian, ginner, gizzard, glaring, glow, governail, guerdon, guideress, habitacule, habitation, harmfully, henter, Hesperus, hider, honeyed, honied, hustlement, hydra, ignorant, imaginable, immovability, immovable, impair, imperial, impetre, imply, imposition, imprint, inconvenient, indifferently, indignation, inestimable, infect, infinity, infirm, inhabit, interchanging, intercommuning, interlace, interminable, jangling, jaw, jointure, knower, lash, leecher, lost, luxure, manifest, Marmaric, marvelling, marveling, meanly, misdrawing, misknowing, miswandering, movability, mowing, mutable, necess, nilling, orphelin, overlight, over-swift, overthrowing, overwhelve, perdurability, plungy, poetical, porism, portionable, presentary, previdence, pronouncer, proportionable, purveyable, reasoning, reddy, redoubt, reduce, remount, rending, replenished, replication, requirable, resist, resolve, resounding, resounding, rhetorian, roil, roundness, rower, rumour, sarplier, scaping, scorkle, semblable, senatory, sensibility, sensible, shadowy, showing, similitude, simplicity, singler, Sirius, skilling, slaked, slead, smoking, smoothness, stadie, starlight, starry, speculation, Stoician, suasion, submit, summit, superfice, supply, sway, sweller, tempest, theatre, theater, thenceforth, thunderer, thunderlight, tragedian, tragedy, tranquillity, transport, troublabla, tumbling, twitter, two-footed, unagreeable, unassayed, unbetide, unbowed, uncovenable, undepartable, undiscomfited, undoubtous, uneschewable, unexercised, ungentle, unhoped, universal, universality, universality, unleeful, unmovablety, unparegal, unperegal, unpiteous, unpiteous, unplight, unplite, unraced, unscience, unsolemn, unstanchable, unstanched, untreatable, unusage, unweened, unwit, unworshipful, unwrap, upheaping, used, variant, vengeress, voluntarily, weening, weeply, withinforth, witnessfully, wood "
Anelida and Arcite.
Anelida and Arcite is a retelling of an old Roman story previously written by Boccaccio.
" assure, awaiting, causeless, chair, chantepleure, crampish, crookedly, desolate, doubleness, ecliptic, excuse, lowly, sound, subtile, Theban, whaped, unfeigned, whaped, womanhead "
Troilus and Criseyde.
Troilus and Criseyde is a story from Boccaccio's "Il Filostrato".
" abbetting, abusion, accident, accord, accusement, adieu, adorn, adverse, advertence, advocary, a-game, agree, alembic, aloud, alter, ambassador, appoint, argument, alite, ambage, amphilbology, argument, Aries, a-root, asfast, askance, asper, aspre, astrologer, atrede, attendance, attrition, atwixt, audience, augury, avaunter, await, bawdry, bay, beblot, befalling, benignity, bestiality, betrend, beware, blossomy, bounteous, burn, bypath, calculing, captive, casual, childishly, chittering, circle, circumscrive, collateral, combust, comedy, complain, complete, conceit, concord, conserve, consolation, constraint, continuance, convers, counterpoise, cramp, crow's foot, cumber-world, curation, dart, defeit, defet, define, deliber, deliberation, derring do, desespeir, desesperance, desesperaunce, determine, digression, direct, disadvance, disadventure, disblame, disconsolate, discordable, discordant, disdainous, disjoint, dispone, disport, disposition, disseverance, dissimule, distil, distill, disturn, divineress, dulcarnon, embassador, enchant, enterpart, entune, erratic, estately, estrange, exchange, excusable, execute, executrice, expert, eyed, faithed, farewell, fatal, fate, faun, feasting, fervently, fetching, finally, firmly, fix, forbysen, forlose, forpass, fury, future, gaure, goodlihead, good night, goosish, governance, graceless, groof, grufe, guide, half-god, hardiment, hawking, heinous, hemisphere, herdess, heroner, hollowness, homecoming, horizon, howne, humbly, hust, immortal, impression, increase, in-eche, infernal, influence, infortune, inhelde, inhielde, injure, inknit, intendment, interchange, intercommune, janglery, jeopard, Jove, jumper, just, kankedort, knotless, let-game, lethargy, liberty, lign-aloes, loadstar, lodestar, martial, mask, melodious, misaccount, misconstrue, misforgive, mislived, mismeter, molest, muck, mucker, munch, mutability, natal, native, new, nouriture, occidental, oriental, ounded, outring, overcarve, over-haste, over-rede, palaceward, palaceward, palaestrial, parody, peoplish, philosophical, phrenetic, plumb rule, pole arctic, predestiny, pregnant, Progne, proverb, qualm, racket, rackle, railed, refigure, refrain, refreid, reheting, reprehension, repression, resistence, resort, resport, return, revoke, Robin, rootless, rosy, royal, ruin, safeguard, saluing, sand, satyr, scrivenliche, secondly, sentiment, shapely, signifer, sling-stone, slink, sliver, snowish, soar, sob, space, strangely, subtilty, sugared, sunnish, surplus, supprise, teary, tempestous, testy, thriftily, thrifty, trance, transitory, transmew, trapdoor, tremor, unapt, unbody, unbridled, unbroided, uncircumscript, undeserved, unespied, unfeelingly, unhappily, universe, unkissed, unlikeliness, unlove, unmanhood, unnest, unprayed, unsheathe, unsitting, unswell, unthrifty, untied, untormented, untroth, unwist, urn, vapour, verre, vetch, virtueless, voidee, voluptuous, vulgarly, vulture, wantrust, weak, well-shapen, well-willy, wester, wieldy, womanhood, womanish, wrongfully, yfled, yold, yolden "
The Legend of Good Women.
The Legend of Good Women is a dream vision love poem.
" accompass, adulation, agrote, angel-like, angrily, appete, appetite, arguing, bedote, bench, betraising, bleeding, box, bridled, browd, clift, complaining, countryward, crinkled, distain, during, emboss, ensure, eternally, everything, famous, father-in-law, felicity, figuring, fingering, fleuron, forgiving, foundation, fret, gledy, graciousness, imagining, infinite, joining, knightly, lure, Mantuan, paper-white, penful, presenting, radevore, reclaiming, renownee, ruled, seemliness, skirmishing, stately, storial, subtilly, subtilely, tidife, tidive, tuteler, toteler, virelay, well, wifehood "
Treatise on the Astrolabe.
Treatise on the Astrolabe is Chaucer's scientific paper of clearer definitions on how to use the Astrolabe, an astronomical instrument.
" adding, aline, almanac, almucantar, almury, altitude, Arabic, Arctic, arm-hole, Arsechieles tables, azimuth, calculer, Capricorn, coldness, compilator, concentric, couching, crepuscule, cross-line, denticle, depression, descension, direct, distant, elevate, elevation, elongation, embelif, epicycle, equal, equator, equinox, fraction, Gemini, gerful, Greek, half-ebb, hence-forthward, indeterminate, intercept, introductory, latitude, line-right, longitude, lop-web, meridian, perpendicular, possibly, precedent, rete, retrograde, right angle, scale, Scorpio, second, septentrional, site, solid, solsticion, succedent, Taurus, tortuous, tropic, unstrange, usward, utility, vulgar "
Miscellaneous poems.
Below are words first attested to in his miscellaneous poems.
" accumbrous, advocatrice, ancille, artillery, aspen, benevolence, besprent, blaspheme, blasphemer, cannel-bone, carrack, carack, cart-wheel, castigation, causer, collusion, comeliness, complaint, confeder, convict, coverter, craze, create, dapple-grey, delicacy, desespeire, desperation, distrouble, down, dullness, dulness, emboss, enfortune, enlumine, entune, envoy, envy, errant, eterne, fattish, fawn, feigned, fers, fickleness, fleshy, flute, forloin, fortune, fortuned, furious, gere, glazing, half-word, hearse, Hercules, humblesse, inconstance, interess, jane, knack, lake, lambish, lancegay, leer, likeliness, limer, litster, lustihead, meet, midpoint, overstrew, prose, rechase, resign, royalty, scant, seeming, solein, solitude, sore, sough, sturdily, suffisance, suing, surmount, sweaty, tall, Tantalus, tapet, Tartary, tickleness, tongued, traitress, traitoress, Turkey, tyranny, uncorven, uncoupling, unforged, ungrubbed, unsown, weld, well-faring, well-founded, whirling, wildly, wildness "
Usages.
Below are some of the words first found in Chaucer's manuscripts that we use today and how they were used in his poems in the 14th century.