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English words first attested in Chaucer, or special manuscript words of Chaucer, are a set of about two thousand English words that Geoffrey Chaucer is credited as being the first use found today in existing manuscripts.〔Cannon, p. 129〕〔Cannon, pp. 231-233〕 This does not 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.〔Cannon, pp. 226-230〕〔Phelan, pp. 61-70〕 The words were already in everyday speech in 14th century England (especially London) and other parts of Europe.〔Baugh, pp. 193-4〕〔Fisher, pp. 7-8〕 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 - 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.〔Cannon, 224-460〕 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.〔〔Simpson, Weiner, et al, ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. According to the Library of Congress for those that have academic library subscribing to the OED, here are the steps you can use to find such a list of words: * Once you are in the OED Online, select "Simple Search" found at the bottom of the screen. * Enter the word Chaucer in the box on the upper left of the screen where it says Search for * For the next box below labeled "in," use the pull-down arrow and click on "first cited author." * Most Universities and Colleges and many large public libraries have OED Online where the reference librarian can give you a listing. * The listing output shows Chaucer's works where he is cited as the first cited author of these words and the year the work was published.〕 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.〔Baugh, pp. 186〕 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.〔Baugh, p. 186〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「English words first attested in Chaucer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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