Earlier this year I came across a copy of the Travels of Sir John Mandeville (you can read it here or here). It's a travel memoir from the 14th century which describes fantastical lands far to the east of Europe based on earlier writings which were mostly based on hearsay. Needless to say, I found what I sought-- the surreal imaginings of the medieval author-- I also came across a trove of fun Middle English words that I heretofore had not encountered (the bulk of the Canterbury Tales and Le Morte DArthur await a rereading upon the bookshelf). The version of the Travels that I read is based on the Cotton Manuscript which is thought to have been written in French then translated to Latin before being translated to English. Needless to say, there's a lot of Frenchness and a dearth of well-composed sentences.

Without further ado, I present:

• apertly: clearly, openly
  • "And they speak of their proper nature, and salute men that go through the deserts, and speak to them as apertly as though it were a man"
• attempre: tempered, regulated, temperate
  • "He hath also a full fair palace and a noble at the city of Nyse, where that he dwelleth, when him best liketh; but the air is not so attempre, as it is at the city of Susa."
• avaled: descended
  • "And often it hath befallen, that some of the Jews have gone up the mountains and avaled down to the valleys."
• avoirdupois: merchandise
  • "From that mountain go men to the city of Thauriso that was wont to be clept Taxis, that is a full fair city and a great, and one of the best that is in the world for merchandise; thither come all merchants for to buy avoirdupois, and it is in the land of the Emperor of Persia."
• beclippe: embrace, take hold of
  • "After take also a drop of balm, and put it into a dish, or in a cup with milk of a goat, and if it be natural balm anon it will take and beclippe the milk."
• behight: bestowed upon, promised, entrusted, offered
  • "And he would have married me full highly to a great prince's daughter, if I would have forsaken my law and my belief; but I thank God, I had no will to do it, for nothing that he behight me."
  • "And for such authorities they say, that only to God shall a man knowledge his defaults, yielding himself guilty and crying him mercy, and behoting to him to amend himself"
• breeks: pants, breeches
  • "Also beside Cairo, without that city, is the field where balm groweth; and it cometh out on small trees, that be none higher than to a man's breeks' girdle, and they seem as wood that is of the wild vine."
• buscaylle: bushes/shrubs? I can't find any other uses of this word
  • "I myself have seen afar in that sea, as though it had been a great isle full of tree, and buscaylle, full of thorns and briars, great plenty."
• cautel: deceit, lie
  • "And he was full of cautels and of subtle deceits."
• clepe: to call, name, swear
  • "And in the tomb of St. John is nought but manna, that is clept angels' meat; for his body was translated into Paradise"
  • "And there dwelt Simon leprous, and there harbored our Lord; and after he was baptised of the apostles and was clept Julian"
• cockodrill: crocodile
  • "These cockodrills be serpents, yellow and rayed above, and have four feet and short thighs, and great nails as claws or talons."
• compassment: guile, craft of mind, utilization of knowledge
  • "And men may well prove by experience and subtle compassment of wit, that if a man found passages by ships that would go to search the world, men might go by ship all about the world and above and beneath"
• creaunce: faith, dedication
  • "Wherefore, it seemeth well, that God loveth them and is pleased with their creaunce for their good deeds."
• culver: pigeon or dove
  • "In that country and other countries beyond they have a custom, when they shall use war, and when men hold siege about city or castle, and they within dare not send out messengers with letters from lord to lord for to ask succour, they make their letters and bind them to the neck of a culver, and let the culver flee."
• devoir: duty, requirement
  • "And if the husband find his wife maiden that other next night after that she should have been lain by of the man that is assigned therefore, peradventure for drunkenness or for some other cause, the husband shall plain upon him that he hath not done his devoir, in such cruel wise as though the officers would have slain him."
• dight: adorn, dress, array
  • "And the crown lieth in a vessel of crystal richly dight."
  • "And in that temple be four entries, and the gates be of cypress, well made and curiously dight"
• disports: entertainments, amusements
  • "None other city is not like in comparison to it of fair gardens, and of fair disports."
• doughty: brave, valiant
  • "And one time befell, that a King of Armenia, that was a worthy knight and doughty man, and a noble princes watched that hawk some time."
• eftsoons: once again
  • "And every day, when the convent of this abbey hath eaten, the almoner let bear the relief to the garden, and he smiteth on the garden gate with a clicket of silver that he holdeth in his hand; and anon all the beasts of the hill and of diverse places of the garden come out a 3000, or a 4000; and they come in guise of poor men, and men give them the relief in fair vessels of silver, clean over-gilt. And when they have eaten, the monk smiteth eftsoons on the garden gate with the clicket, and then anon all the beasts return again to their places that they come from."
• eld: years old, senile
  • "And the same Sarah was of eld four score and ten year when Isaac her son was gotten on her."
  • "And this Lamech was all blind for eld."
• eyren: eggs
  • "And there is a common house in that city that is all full of small furnaces, and thither bring women of the town their eyren of hens, of geese, and or ducks for to be put into those furnaces."
• flome: river
  • "About the flome Jordan be many churches where that many Christian men dwelled."
• fordo: kill, destroy, cancel
  • "And yet there is at Alexandria a fair church, all white without paintures; and so be all the other churches that were of the Christian men, all white within, for the Paynims and the Saracens made them white for to fordo the images of saints that were painted on the walls."
• fructuous: fruitful
  • And though that men bring of the plants, for to plant in other countries, they grow well and fair; but they bring forth no fructuous thing, and the leaves of balm fall not."
• frussch: fight? come to arms? (this word seems to only exist in this paragraph)
  • "And then they make knights to joust in arms full lustily; and they run together a great random, and they frussch together full fiercely, and they break their spears so rudely that the truncheons fly in sprouts and pieces all about the hall."
• gobbet: a chunk
  • "And then the priests cast the gobbets of the flesh and then the fowls, each of them, taketh that he may, and goeth a little thence and eateth it; and so they do whilst any piece lasteth of the dead body."
• gree: a flight of steps
  • "And without the doors of the church, on the right side as men go upward eighteen grees"
  • "And the grees that he goeth up to the table be of precious stones mingled with gold."
• grucche: murmur, mutter
  • "And then pass men by the well that Moses made with his hand in the deserts, when the people grucched; for they found nothing to drink"
• halvendel: a half portion of something
  • "Because that man is the most noble creature in earth, and also for he hath lordship above all beasts, therefore make they the halvendel of idol of a man upwards; and the tother half of an ox downwards, and of serpents, and of other beasts and diverse things, that they worship, that they meet first at morrow."
• heling: covering, as a tarp on a tent
  • "And the heling of their houses and the walls and the doors be all of wood."
• hight: to be called, named, or commanded
  • "And the town is called Jaffa; for one of the sons of Noah that hight Japhet founded it, and now it is clept Joppa."
• horologe: a clock or timepiece
  • "And everych of them have before them astrolabes of gold, some spheres, some the brain pan of a dead man, some vessels of gold full of gravel or sand, some vessels of gold full of coals burning, some vessels of gold full of water and of wine and of oil, and some horologes of gold, made full nobly and richly wrought, and many other manner of instruments after their sciences."
• leit: a lightning strike
  • "And in summer, by all the countries, fall many tempests and many hideous thunders and leits and slay much people and beasts also full often-time."
• leman: lover, sweetheart
  • "And she turned toward him and asked him what he would? And he said, the would be her leman or paramour."
• lever: rather
  • "And at great feasts, and for strangers, they set forms and tables, as men do in this country, but they had lever sit in the earth."
• lunation: a lunar cycle
  • "And there is not the moon seen in all the lunation, save only the second quarter."
• maugre: notwithstanding, in spite of
  • But great number of folk ne may not do so, for the mountains be so high and so straight up, that they must abide there, maugre their might."
• maundy: the Last Supper
  • "And also they make their sacrament of the altar of Therf bread, for our Lord made it of such bread, when he made his Maundy."
• meed: payment, recompense
  • "'He that taketh a prophet in my name, he shall take meed of the prophet.'"
• meinie: retinue
  • "And when that messengers of strange countries come before him, the meinie of the soldan, when the strangers speak to him, they be about the soldan with swords drawn and gisarmes and axes, their arms lifted up in high with those weapons for to smite upon them, if they say any word that is displeasance to the soldan"
  • "And when he hath no war, but rideth with a privy meinie, then he hath borne before him but one cross of tree, without painting and without gold or silver or precious stones, in remembrance that Jesu Christ suffered death upon a cross of tree."
• mesell: leprous
  • "Also in that flome Jordan Naaman of Syria bathed him, that was full rich, but he was mesell; and there anon he took his health."
• mickle: a great many, often, much
  • "From the Port Jaffa men go to the city of Rames, the which is but a little thence; and it is a fair city and a good and mickle folk therein."
  • "There be also many other beasts, full wicked and cruel, that be not mickle more than a bear, and they have the head like a boar, and they have six feet, and on every foot two large claws, trenchant; and the body is like a bear, and the tail as a lion."
• mountance: amount
  • "And from thence go men to the city of Hebron, that is the mountance of twelve good mile."
• mountour: mount, podium
  • "And in the midst of this palace is the mountour for the great Chan, that is all wrought of gold and of precious stones and great pearls."
• nesh: soft, yielding
  • And there as mountains and hills be and valleys, that is not but only of Noah's flood, that wasted the soft ground and the tender, and fell down into valleys, and the hard earth and the rocks abide mountains, when the soft earth and tender waxed nesh through the water, and fell and became valleys.
• noblesse: nobleness, nobility
  • "The folk of that isle make them always to be marked in the visage with an hot iron, both men and women, for great noblesse, for to be known from other folk; for they hold themselves most noble and most worthy of all the world."
  • "For the noblesse of that country is to have long nails, and to make them grow always to be as long as men may."
• orfrayed: elaborately embroidered
  • "In that realm be fair men, and they go full nobly arrayed in clothes of gold, orfrayed and apparelled with great pearls and precious stone's full nobly"
• orison: a prayer
  • "And he, all naked, hath a full sharp knife in his hand, and he cutteth a great piece of his flesh, and casteth it in the face of his idol, saying his orisons, recommending him to his god."
• orped: bold, valiant
  • "And always they make her queen by election that is most worthy in arms; for they be right good warriors and orped, and wise, noble and worthy."
• overthwart: across
  • "And he hath a crest of feathers upon his head more great than the peacock hath; and is neck his yellow after colour of an oriel that is a stone well shining, and his beak is coloured blue as ind; and his wings be of purple colour, and his tail is barred overthwart with green and yellow and red. And he is a full fair bird to look upon, against the sun, for he shineth full gloriously and nobly."
  • "And though ye cut them in never so many gobbets or parts, overthwart or endlong, evermore ye shall find in the midst the figure of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesu."
• pight: to have pitched, cast, put
  • "But they have two small holes, all round, instead of their eyes, and their mouth is plat also without lips."
• plat: flat, level
  • "And that may men prove, and shew there by a spear, that is pight into the earth, upon the hour of midday, when it is equinox, that sheweth no shadow on no side."
• pottage: vegetable stew
  • "And they have not in many places, neither pease ne beans ne none other pottages but the broth of the flesh."
• privities: holy mysteries, something known only to god
  • "But yet there is a place that men clepe the school of God, where he was wont to teach his disciples, and told them the privities of heaven."
• reneyed: deny, disown, especially a faith
  • "And, amongst these other, there is a great image more than any of the other, that is all covered with fine gold and precious stones and rich pearls; and that idol is the god of false Christians that have reneyed their faith"
• septentrion: north, or northerly regions
  • "And therefore in the Septentrion, that is very north, is the land so cold, that no man may dwell there."
  • "Also in the head of that sea of Galilee, toward the septentrion is a strong castle and an high that hight Saphor."
• siker: secure, certain
  • "But for to fulfil their pilgrimages more easily and more sikerly, men go first the longer way rather than the nearer way."
  • "And therefore, I am siker that this may not be, without a great token."
• shrive: to hear or receive confession of sins
  • "And of everych of these sins it behoveth them to be shriven of their priests, and to pay great sum of silver for their penance."
  • "Ne God ordained not, ne never devised, ne the prophet neither, that a man should shrive him to another (as they say), but only to God."
• sithen: since, from that time
  • "And it is not long sithen, that a knight of Rhodes, that was hardy and doughty in arms, said that he would kiss her."
• stank: a pool of water
  • "For it is but a stank of fresh water that is in length one hundred furlongs, and of breadth forty furlongs, and hath within him great plenty of good fish, and runneth into flom Jordan."
• swithe: fiercely, strongly
  • "And he yede and opened the tomb, and there flew out an adder right hideous to see; the which as swithe flew about the city and country, and soon after the city sank down"
• therf: unlevened
  • "And they make the sacrament of therf bread"
• undern: third hour of daylight (9am)
  • "In that country and in Ethiopia, and in many other countries, the folk lie all naked in rivers and waters, men and women together, from undern of the day till it be past the noon."
• unnethe: hardly, reluctantly
  • "And from him cometh out smoke and stinking fire and so much abomination, that unnethe no man may there endure."
  • "And they cast themselves to the sea bank of that isle so great plenty and multitude, that no man may unnethe see but fish."
• viand: an item of food
  • "And men set a table before him clean, covered with a cloth, and thereupon flesh and diverse viands and a cup full of mare's milk."
• ween: to suppose, imagine
  • And when they will fight they will shock them together in a plump; that if there be 20,000 men, men shall not ween that there be scant 10,000.
• wend: turn, wind about, drive a sinuous course
  • "And so to Venice or Genoa, or some other haven, and ships there and wends by sea to the isle of Greff, the which pertains to the Genoans."
  • "He that will pass over the sea and come to land [to go to the city of Jerusalem, he may wend many ways, both on sea and land"
• wight: creature, human being
  • "And as long as their victuals last they may abide there, but no longer; for there shall they find no wight that will sell them any victual or anything."
• wist: to know/be aware of
  • "And then he said to his sister, he wist well that men of the country would make no sorrow for his death; and therefore he made his sister swear that she should let smite off all the heads of the lords when he were dead; and then should all the land make sorrow for his death, and else, nought; and thus he made his testament."
  • "And though they would put them into that sea, they ne wist never where that they should arrive"
• yede: went
  • "And he yede and opened the tomb, and there flew out an adder right hideous to see; the which as swithe flew about the city and country, and soon after the city sank down"

In the course of authoring this blog post I made my first contributions to the Wiktionary, adding a few quotes from the book here and there and adding the skeletal outlines of word defintions that were not yet created. I had, up to this point, been too meek to make edits to Wikipedia, but this has inspired a certain level of confidence in me. It's no harder than making a pull request!