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Middle-English Word of the Day - February 19, 2008

Sparlire (n.) - the calf of the leg.

Heme wel-haled hose of that same,
that spenet on his sparlyr, and clene spures vnder
Of bryght golde, vpon silk bordes barred ful ryche,
And scholes vnder schankes there the schalk rides;

- Anonymous: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1400)

Pronunciation: /spArlir/

Key
/s/ s in hiss
/p/ p in pepper
/A/ a in father
/r/ r in red
/l/ l in lily
/i/ i in machine

The Middle-English Word of the Day is selected from Mayhew and Skeat's
"Concise Dictionary of Middle English."
As found on Greg Lindahl's website
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/concise/concise.html

The example text was found at the Middle English Collection of the University of Virginia Library.
http://etext.virginia.edu/collections/languages/english/mideng.browse.html

The approximate pronunciation is determined using Carol Hamill's Middle English Pronunciation Guide
and noted using upon the ASCII-IPA Standard
http://www.island.net/~hamill/medieval/mepronunc.html
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/

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