Notes on the New English Dictionary 575 NOTES ON THE NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY One of the most important sources which the NED draws upon for exemplification of its word material is the treatise of WALTER DE BIBLESWORTH published as No. 10 in Thomas Wright's first volume of Vocabularies, Liverpool 1857. It occupies pages 142-174 and is dated by Wright as belonging to the close of the 13th century. For all that the NED dates its quotations from this document occasionally either anterior 1300 or circa 1300 or 1 3 . . or 1325. The dating a 1300 I find sub ankle, *alsene, apple (of the eye), balk sb II, bat sb 1 , baldcoot, backbone, basket, barbican (!!!), *belag, belt sb 2 , clicket. The dating c 1300 I have noticed only sub measlings sb. pi. The dating 13 . . sub ash sb 1 and rung sb 1 and 5. The dating 1325 sub cleft, clift sb 2a and shinbone. The majority of quo- tations, however, exhibit the date c 1325. We may well ask, in the first place, why was Wright's dating not accepted? In the second place, if there was good reason for deviating from Wright's dating, why was the date c 1325 not strictly adhered to? Thirdly, how could it happen that sub barbican the quo- tation dated a 1300 is attributed to W. de Biblesworth, when it is actually from John de Garlande? The wavering between five different datings is puzzling enough; still more puzzling is the wavering between no less than three different ways of stating the author's name of the treatise. In three instances I find the name given as PF[alter] de Bibbysw[orih]. So sub grice 1 , gristle sb 2, loune v. W. de Biblesworth he is called sub awn*, alder sb 1 , ankle, apple 7, *alsene, backbone, bolting, breast- clout, brawn, calf 2 , clicket, cricket sb 1 , dalk 2 , dough-rib, dwarf,
- easle, elder sb 1 , flax-boll, gossamer, *gound, goundy, goave v.,
gowpen, handwrist, hatchel v., hemp-seed, haw-tree, harts-tongue,
- hayhove, hollin, house-wife, hurcheon. In the majority of quo-
tations, however, which I have examined, about 70, the name is persistently given as W. de Bibbesworth, occasionally written all in capitals, BIBBESWORTH, and it is noteworthy that this occurs from "G" on down to the latest numbers of the NED issued. See sub green a., *greenhead, lea-land, knell sb/3., kidney, kiln, maythen, mewt, measle sb, measlings, midred, mouldwarp, ouzel, over -lip, pin sb 1 , plum-tree, potsherd, pease-
rise, pease-straw, pock sb 2a, pick v. II 3 IHb, quince, sheldrake,
