From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
Date: Mon Mar 5, 2001 4:05pm
Subject: Re: [tied] Axing a Kentish woman for
meat
The verb <ascian> had the variant <axian>
already in Old English, and "ax"
for "ask" is still quite widespread in English
dialects. There is evidence
that it was considered the regular pronunciation
by 17th-century
orthoepists.
"Atte" = contracted "at the" (this is why Modern
English has so many
idiomatic prepositional phrases involving "at",
with definite article
apparently omitted: at the table > atte table >
at table). The "forelond"
in Caxton's story is possibly North Foreland,
the headland on the coast of
Kent. "Mete" (meat) meant "food" at the time.
Piotr
Are you sure "Mete" is not of "mat" norwegian/norse for "food"?
Morten