Home Subjects Archives Quotations Forums
 Top 100 •  The Book •  Contact A Web site by Paul McFedries   

Geoffrey Chaucer
English poet
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
"By God," quod he, "for pleynly, at a word,
Thy drasty rymyng is nat worth a toord!"
—Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet, The Canterbury Tales, c. 1343

Posted on October 18, 1999 at 8:10 PM

WORDS ABOUT WORDS

Ye knowe ek that in forme of speche is chaunge
Within a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden prys now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem, and yet they spake hem so.

You know that even forms of speech can change
Within a thousand years, and words we know
Were useful once, seem to us wondrous strange —
Foolish or forced — and yet men spoke them so.
—Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet, Troilus and Criseyde, c. 1385

Posted on September 21, 1998 at 6:21 AM

 Words About Words:
Quotations Index

Author Index

 Recent posts:
  returnment
  tipping element
  "mug me" earphones
  renoviction
  philanthrocapitalism
  reverse Bradley effect
  silent run
  myco-diesel
  punditariat
  liquor-cycle
 Select an archive:
  A B C D E F G H I
  J K L M N O P Q R
  S T U V W X Y Z #
 Other links:
Word Spy Citations

My Favorite Words

My Neologisms

 Search Word Spy:

Enter your search text:

 Subscribe to Word Spy:
Get Word Spy by RSS


Get Word Spy by email:


Powered by FeedBlitz



Word Spy on Twitter
 Lingua Techna Posts:



Copyright © 1995 - 2013 Paul McFedries and Logophilia Limited