Potentilla_anserina_bd3_tafel_088

mare

noun, , , hapax legomenon

Type: plant

Last Update: 19.07.2011 07:32

Meaning Last Update: 09.02.2010 09:19

  • A: plant: native
    ?? Potentilla anserina L., silverweed, Gänse-Fingerkraut
↑ top

Comment Last Update: 19.07.2011 07:30

  • Comment on (A): ?? Potentilla anserina L., silverweed, Gänse-Fingerkraut

    Based on Cockayne (1961,II,399) BT (1882, s.v. mare) relate OE mare to IS mara (it was not possible to verify this plant name cf. e.g. de Vries 2000, s.v., but cf. de Vries and Heizmann 1993, s.v. maralmr, which denotes several sea and water plants) and identify it as P. anserina (Clapham 1962,383: "Waste places, roadsides, damp pastures, dunes, etc."), but we doubt that OE mara is a plan name at all.

    The context reads: Eft mare twy nihte grut mealtes smedma, cersan, æges þæt hwite [...] meng tosomne, lege on. Cockayne (1961,II,75), who reads 'twynihte' as it is recorded in the MS, translates: "Again, mingle together the cottony potentilla, commonly called silverweed, groats of malt, smede or fine flour, cress, the white of an egg, [...]", Without explaining his reasons Cockayne equates mare with 'potentilla' and does not translate twynihte. BT explain the adjective (s.v. twinihte) as 'two days old': in the LB →grūt is defined by the adjective eald two times, based on this we assume that twynihte attributes grūt. We suggest that mare should not be identified as plant name but as māre, a comparative to micel 'big, groß'; the passage could then be translated: "Mix together a good deal of spent grains, two days old, and [also] flour, cress, egg white ...".

↑ top

Occurrence Last Update: 04.03.2010 06:37

  • LB, 23/16 nsg ? mare
↑ top

Image Last Update: 19.07.2011 07:32

?? Potentilla anserina L., silverweed, Gänse-Fingerkraut

Potentilla_anserina_bd3_tafel_088

Botanical-Information: stylised plate

Source: →reference-information

Thomé, Otto Wilhelm. Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. In 4 Mappen ; 531 Tafeln in naturgetreuen Farben mit 668 Pflanzenarten. Leipzip: Teubner, 1938.

↑ top

Research Literature

BT: Bosworth, Joseph. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Ed. by Thomas Northcote Toller. Reprint 1973. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882.
BW I: Bierbaumer, Peter. Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen. Grazer Beiträge zur Englischen Philologie 1. Bern, Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1975.
LB: Cockayne, Oswald Thomas (ed.). "Leech Book." In: Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England. Being a Collection of Documents, for the Most Part never before Printed, Illustrating the History of Sience in this Country before the Norman Conquest. Vol. 2. Rev. Ed. by Charles Singer. London: Longman [et. al.], 1961. 1-360.
LB: Leonhardi, Günther. Kleinere angelsächsische Denkmäler I. Bibliothek der ags. Prosa VI. Hamburg: Grand, 1905.
Clapham, A.R., T.G. Tutin, and E.F. Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
Cockayne, Oswald Thomas (ed.). Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England. 3 vols. with a New Introduction by Charles Singer. Rev. Ed. London: Holland Press, 1961.
Deegan, Marilyn. A Critical Edition of MS. B.L. Royal 12.D.XVII: Bald's 'Leechbook'. Diss. Univ. of Manchester. 1988.
Hankins, Freda Richards. Bald's 'Leechbook' Reconsidered. Diss. Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1993.
Heizmann, Wilhelm. Wörterbuch der Pflanzennamen im Altwestnordischen. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Vol. 7. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 1993.
MS London, British Library, Royal 12 D.xvii.
Vries, Jan de. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2. verb. Aufl. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
Wright, Cyril E. (ed.). Bald's Leechbook. Early English manuscripts in facsimile. 5. Kopenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1955.