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Meaning

The botanical name (according to the Linnéan system) as well as the standardised English and German correspondences of the Old English plant-name are provided, e.g. for bēo-wyrt: Melissa officinalis L., balm (common ~, lemon ~), Zitronenmelisse. Contrary to the existing OE dictionaries (BT, CH, DOE) the botanical name is given to secure an as exact as possible identification of the plant denoted by the Old English plant-name. In some cases it is not possible to determin an exact species: here we only note the plant genus, e.g. for āc: ‘Quercus L., oak, Eiche’. Possible species are then listed in the comment. We want to ensure that we use standardised names for the plants: reference books for these names are: English: Dony, John George, S. L. Jury and Franklyn Perring. English Names of Wild Flowers. A recommended list of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. 2nd revised edition. London: Botanical Society of the British Isles, 1986. German: Erhard, Walter [et al.]. Zander. Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen. 17th edition. Stuttgart: Ulmer, 2002.

If an Old English plant-name has several meanings, i.e. if due to tradition it refers to several plants, the different possibilities are labelled with capital letters (A, B, C, ...). This lettering is not a means for providing a certain order within the list of possible identifications or the attempt at an assessment, it is simply a means to give a distinct and short point of reference.

If an identification is not certain, question marks are used to express different degrees of doubt:
  • no question marks are given for safe identifications
  • one question mark (?) indicates a probable identification
  • two question marks (??) indicate a hardly tenable identification
  • three question marks (???) indicate a wrong identification (that can be found in reference literature)

For bēowyrt the list would look like this:
A: Melissa officinalis L., balm (common ~, lemon ~), Zitronenmelisse (plant, introduced)
B: Ballota nigra L., black horehound, Schwarzer Andorn (plant, native)
C: ? Acorus calamus L., sweet flag, Kalmus (plant, foreign)
E: ?? Onopordon acanthium L., scottish thistle, Eselsdistel (plant, native
F: ?? Acanthus mollis L., bear’s breech, Weicher Akanth (plant, foreign)
G: ?? thistle-species or thistle-like plant, Distelart oder eine distelähnliche Pflanze

Additionally each identification is labelled with the attributes ‘plant’, ‘plant-part’ (i.e. fruits, leaves, stems, etc.), ‘plant-product’ (i.e. oil, flour, etc.), and ‘plant related’ (e.g. botanical terms). If the OE headword can be identified as a plant it is described in terms of distribution, too. Here we focus on the fact if a plant was native (or not) to England in Anglo-Saxon times:
  • ‘native’ indicates that the plant is indigenous to England;
  • ‘introduced’ indicates that the plant in question was introduced to England before or in Anglo-Saxon times;
  • ‘foreign’ describes plants not native to early medieval England.

If necessary these labels can be commented upon. The research is primarily based on ‘Clapham, A.R., T.G. Tutin, and E.F. Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.’, and ‘Stace, Clive. New Flora of the British Isles. 2nd ed. with ill. by Hilli Thompson. Cambridge: University Press, 1997.’, and special studies.