Chaucer’s Language
A very brief glimpse
Statistics
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Complete vocabulary: 8,072
Words from Romance
sources: 4,189
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Words first recorded by
Chaucer: 1,180*
(for those of you with poor
math skills, 1/8 of all of the
words in Chaucer’s
vocabulary were appropriated
by him to be used in new and
original contexts)
*data taken from Chaucer’s
Language, by Simon Horobin
Vocabulary – Main Uses
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1. connotation
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Register (high or low)
Technical terms
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Sometimes used with basic definition in mind
Often used ironically
Used to deepen the meaning of a passage
Word status in larger language
2. metrical convenience
Old English Words
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Forms the core of the text (common every day
words transmitted from Old to Middle English
Used as synonyms where another word doesn’t
rhyme (I.e. stevene instead of vois [Fr])
Technical terms derived in OE but uncommon
in ME used figuratively (I.e. thurrok – OE –
the hold or bilge of a ship  used to refer to
ydelnesse as the hold of all “wikked and
vileyns thoghtes” – Parson’s Tale)
French Loanwords
Many French words common parlance already in ME (i.e.
vois); used proportionally in Canterbury Tales
Borrowed technical terms
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Some have lost original technical meaning (I.e. effectif – originally
used in Aristotelian philosophy)
Chaucer first to use legal terms derived from French in literary
context (I.e. protestacioun, ‘a type of pleading where a party affirms
or denies a matter’ in the legal sense, also a ‘declaration;’ from
Miller's Tale “First I make a protestacioun That I am dronke, I
knowe it by my soun”)
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Here used to give the line deeper meaning because it is not used in a
legal situation
Old Norse Loanwords
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Words of ON derivation used primarily to
indicate Midlands and Northern dialects (I.e. in
Reeve’s Tale)
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Most likely more common in speech
We do not yet see the use of the ON third
person pronouns (except when indicating
dialect; use of ‘they’ somewhat common)
Latin Loanwords
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Latin words primarily used technical terms (Ie:
preamble – “a formal prologue to a literary
work” – used by Wife of Bath to introduce her
tale – irony)
Some examples from The Miller’s
Tale (1st 200 lines)
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Words appropriated by Chaucer from French:
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Avalen (from OF avaler, meaning ‘to descend, or get down’
– has fallen out of use – no relation to homynym ‘avail’)
compaignye (taken from MF par compagnie – in company;
“A chambre hadde he in that hostelrye/Allone, withouten
any compaignye” line 95-6)
interrogacioun (from Fr. – the act of questioning in a formal
manner; “His fantasye Was turned for to lerne Astrologye,
And koude a certeyn of conclusions To demen by
Interrogacions.” line 8? )
Examples cont’d
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Similitude (Fr. –having the likeness of another
person or thing; “the bad men sholde wedde his
similitude” line )
accorded (from OF accorder – to reconcile,
harmonize, agree to; “And thus they been
accorded and ysworn/To waite a time, as I have
told biforn.” line 193-4)
Tasseled (from OF tasel – clasp; in ME furnished
or adorned with tassels; OED notes first usage in
1611; seen in Chaucer in MT, line 143)
Interesting word formations
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Haunch-bone – ‘thigh’ (from OF haunche meaning ‘hip,
buttock of a horse; in men, the part of the body between last
rib and thigh;’ bone from OE ‘ban’---- “And heeld hire harde
by the haunche-bones” line 171)
Conclusioun (from Fr./Lat concludere – to end, close, wind up;
line 85) verb 
Thriftily – “in a becoming manner” (from OE noun thrif “well
doing, prosperity”)
Unbokeled (from ME buckle: a clasp; potentially related to Fr.
boucler, in the sense ‘to bulge;’ “This gooth aright: unbokeled
is the male [read pouch]” line 7) first usage noted in OED
1489-Caxton
Happy Halloween!!!
(Blessed Samhain)