There are a fair number of abbreviations in this page. Some are peculiar to English-language manuscripts:
English Language Abbreviations | ||
Contractions : | ||
This stands for þat. | ||
This sign stands for and. | ||
This sign stands for pre. In more formal bookhands it is a straight line drawn horizontally over the top of the p. This word is prest, 'priest'. | ||
This is the familiar abbreviation sign indicating that an m or n has been left out. It can be either arched or flat. Here the word is prisoun. | ||
Sometimes, however, it appears to be used as a meaningless flourish. There seems to be no grammatical reason why there should be an extra n or m on the end of either on or woman. | ||
This leads to the whole question of how far in later fifteenth-century English writing some signs which once were meaningful abbreviation marks had become mere ornamental flourishes, perhaps because the ending which they once denoted was no longer pronounced. |
Suspensions | ||
This flourish, here seen on m, stands for er. You see it here in merci, 'mercy'. | ||
This smaller version, here growing out of the cross-stroke of a t, seems also to indicate an abbreviation of er, on the word after. | ||
However, here it seems merely to be a flourish, or an alternative form of final e. The word is apparently singe. |
Latin Abbreviations : | ||
You have met this sign before: it stands for per. Here it appears in Latin opera, 'works'. | ||
This stands for misericordie, 'of mercy'. | ||
This stands for versus, 'verse'. Here it draws the reader's attention to a useful Latin verse in which should help them to remember the names of the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy. | ||
...... | The flourish above the v is an er abbreviation: the 9-shaped sign after the tall s stands for us. | |
This stands for spiritualia, 'spiritual'. You have seen sps for spiritus before. |
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© MEG TWYCROSS 2000
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