Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources (British Academy)
0197258913
9780197258910
Description:
The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources is an indispensable guide to the study of the Latin Middle Ages in Britain from the sixth century to the sixteenth. It is prepared under the direction of a British Academy committee, initially by R.E. Latham and now by a team headed by D.R.
Howlett and will be published in ten fascicules.
The Dictionary both records the usage of Classical and Late Latin in this period, and charts the medieval developments of the language as revealed in a rich variety of printed and manuscript sources. Latin was not static and inflexible, but was as receptive as English was to the needs of everyday
life (and to the needs of users often barely literate). Each fascicule contains hundreds of new word formations. Some of the borrowings from other languages are recorded in Latin centuries before their appearance in written vernacular.
The Dictionary is of immeasurable vallue to all medievalists, as important for cultural history as it is for linguistics. To confirmed dictionary browsers, even those with rusty Latin, it offers many delights.