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Germanic Lexicon Project
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Author: William
Date: 2007-09-08 17:24:03
Subject: Re: Bosworth/Toller, page b0535, entry 29
This is a margin comment on: Bosworth/Toller, page b0535, entry 29
> > In this short entry:
> >
> > "hierstan. v. hyrstan"
> >
> > v. stands for "variant" or possibly "variation of."
> >
> > Does this hold true throughout the dictionary? How is "variant" defined with regard to Old English? Its common meaning with regard to modern dictionary entries--a non-standard or less common spelling of a word--seems much narrower that many of the examples given in Bosworth-Toller, which include compound words, and words altered with prefixes as variants.
> >
> > Thanks.
>
> I agree that BT's use of "v." seems too broad to simply stand for "variant". Unfortunately Bosworth didn't feel the need to explain the "obvious" contractions, but in this case I'd suggest a common use for his times where "v." stands also for L. "vide" - see. There might be other, better explanations, though.
>
> Ondrej
Thank you. I think this is going to require a lot of guesswork on my part. In many cases a word is given after a v. something, then I go to whatever this is and it's listed as a v. of the first word. If v. is being used for "vide," then it really becomes confusing. Also, I'm used to v. meaning "verb" in modern dictionaries.
William
Bosworth/Toller, page b0535, entry 29