Speght’s "Jape": A Word History and an Editor at Work.
- Author / Editor
- Ransom, Daniel J.
Speght’s "Jape": A Word History and an Editor at Work.
- Published
- Journal of English and Germanic Philology 118 (2019): 517-43.
- Description
- Observes that the glossary of Speght’s 1598 edition of Chaucer’s works lists "yape" for "jape"/"iape," meaning “trick,” “joke,” or sexual activity, but the 1602 edition does not; historical and contemporary word lists do not include "yape" unless influenced by Speght. Argues that Speght possibly ordered this orthographic change because by the late sixteenth century "jape" was becoming an obscenity.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations
Language and Word Studies