medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Pat McIntosh-Spinnler <[log in to unmask]>
> I think "wode" and "wood" are interchangeable. Surely Malory uses "stark
wood" on more than one occasion?
the OED gives instances of use in both spellings, but there is no separate
entry in it for "wode"
here's the one for "wood" (in our sense, and "riming with 'food'), with all
its variant spellings:
Forms: 1-6 (9 Sc.) wod, 3-7 (9 arch.) wode, (4 Sc. vode), 4-5 woed, 4-6 woode,
woud(e, wodde, (5 ode, oothe, Sc. woide, void, 5-7 Sc. woid), 6 wodd, (oode,
wyd, Sc. vod, wuid), 6-7 woodde, (6, 9 Sc. wid, 7 would, 8- Sc. and dial.
wud), 4- wood.
[ < OE. wód = OHG. wuot (in ferwuot raging, frantic), ON. ó{edh}r, Goth.
wôd-, *w{omac}{th}s possessed (cf. OHG., MHG. wuot, G. wut rage); f. Teut.
w{omac}{edh} - (to which belong also OE. wó{th} song, sound, ON. ó{edh}r
poetry, and WODEN):{em}Indo-Eur. w{amac}t-, represented by L. v{amac}t{emac}s
seer, poet, OIr. fáith poet, W. gwawd song of praise, the fundamental meaning
being ‘to be excited or inspired’. From the mutated stem are OE. wéde
mad, wédan WEDE v., wéden in WEDENONFA', WIDDENDREAM. The form oothe is from
Scand. Compounds are BRAIN-WOOD, RED-WOOD a.]
1. Out of one's mind, insane, lunatic: = MAD a. 1.
c725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) E249 Epilenticus, woda.
c1000 Ags. Gosp. John x. 21 Ne synt na {th}is wodes mannes word.
c1200 ORMIN 15506 He draf ut off wode menn Defless.
1303 R. BRUNNE Handl. Synne 11026 A wode man touched on hys bere,..And a-none
he hadde botenyng.
c1350 Will. Palerne 554 {Ygh}if i told him treuli my tene..He wold wene i were
wod.
c1430 Hymns Virgin (1867) 46 Woode men, he {ygh}eue{th} hem {th}er mynde, And
maki{th} mesels hool.
c1440 York Myst. xi. 334 His folke sall no ferre Yf he go welland woode. c1440
Promp. Parv. 372/2 Oothe, or woode, amens.
1540 R. HYRDE tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) G, They bee bitten of the
wood dog the devil, & be fallen wood themselves.
1572 Satir. Poems Reform. xxxviii. 101 Anis wod and ay the war.
1590 SPENSER F.Q. I. iv. 34 Through vnaduized rashnesse woxen wood.
1609 SKENE Reg. Maj. 82b, Gif any man is Lunatick, woodde, or furious, with
space of manifest wit and judgement betwix ilk time.
1627 J. TAYLOR (Water P.) Armado D1b, In the North parts of England,..when
they thinke that a man is distracted or frenzy, they will say the man is Wood.
1724 RAMSAY Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 86 The wife was wood, and out o' her wit.
c1730 {emem} Betty & Kate iv, That's like to put us wood.
1816 SCOTT Old Mort. xxxvii, Some folk say, that pride and anger hae driven
him clean wud.
1828 Craven Gloss., Wood, mad, rhyming with food. This word is rarely used.
1843 LYTTON Last Bar. I. ix, Am I dement? Stark wode?
>What puzzles me is how on earth Jerome managed to dress in someone else's
clothes without noticing he was doing so, even in the dark.
well, it was a *miracle*, don't you see?
>Surely they must have felt different, or even smelled wrong?
kinky.
c
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