Transcriber’s Notes:
Underlining
Errors
Alphabetization
Cross-References
Hyphens
Underlining in the Dictionary
All underlining was added by the transcriber. You will see the following forms:
errors noted by transcriber
errors noted by author
text added by author (outlined as a block)
Errors and Inconsistencies
For errors corrected by the author, see the Additions and Corrections section; for errors in cross-references, see below.
Errors in Anglo-Saxon words were treated more conservatively than those in the modern text. The most common change was adding or removing a macron in cross-references:
Printed text
mēs (K) = mȳs, v. mus.
Cross-referenced entry
mūs f. gs. mūs, mūse, nap. mȳs ‘mouse,’ ...
Since both headwords have a long vowel, the cross-reference was changed to match.
Most errors are trivial, such as missing or incorrect punctuation or misplaced italics. The word “invisible” in corrections means that there is an appropriately sized blank space in the printed text. Punctuation at the end of entries was silently regularized, and missing or invisible periods (full stops) after standard abbreviations such as “m.” or “pl.” were silently supplied. Other errors are shown in the text with mouse-hover popups.
Alphabetization in the Dictionary
Unless otherwise noted, words are spelled and alphabetized as originally printed. Note in particular:
The letter æ is alphabetized as ae.
The letter ð (eth) is alphabetized separately after t.
The letters j and v are not used.
When two words are otherwise identical, the one containing a macron is generally alphabetized second.
Cross-References
Cross-references are linked to the referenced word. When the word is located in your current file (A-C, D-G, H-N, O-S, T-Y) the link is highlighted; when it is in another file, the link is underlined. These settings may be overridden by your personal browser preferences. Your browser may take a short while to find the word, especially if it is opening a file for the first time, so you will generally see the beginning of the new file before being taken to the right location.
Cross-references are shown as printed. When there is an error or ambiguity, corrections are shown in mouse-hover popups with these standard wordings:
under “mūs”
The referenced word is either a secondary entry or a parenthesized
alternative spelling in the form “mūs (ȳ)”
headword spelled “mūs”
Minor difference, generally an added or omitted macron or a predictable
vowel variation such as ī for ȳ.
form of “mūs”
The referenced word is an inflected form. A few very common patterns
such as adverbs in “-līce” listed under adjectives in “-lic” are not
individually noted.
redirected to “mūs”
The cross-referenced form leads to further cross-references.
Most errors are minor lapses in editing. More complicated errors, such as references to words that could not be found in the Dictionary, are explained in separate paragraphs immediately following the entry.
Technical Note
Anchors of Dictionary headwords are in the form word_entry (lower case) with these modifications:
— The letters æ and ð have been “unpacked” to ae and th: æfðanc = word_aefthanc
— Long vowels are written with q, since this letter does not otherwise occur: ham, hām = word_ham, word_haqm. Long ǣ is aeq (aē does not occur).
— Medial hyphens were omitted. Entries with final hyphen, for spelling variations, are generally not linked; when necessary, the final hyphen was changed to a line _.
— When necessary to resolve ambiguity, initial + or ± is included in the anchor as ge_.
— Headwords with multiple definitions are identified by Roman numeral matching the text: ham ... II. ... III. = word_ham_ii, word_ham_iii.
Hyphens
In references to the OED (“New English Dictionary”), printed as italicized English words in ‘single quotes’, hyphenization does not always correspond to the OED form. These inconsistencies were left as printed; words split at line-end were not generally checked against their OED form.