Thursday, September 21, 2006

Just in case...

Just in case anyone else asks, the word "quilt" is derived most recently from the Middle English word "quilte". That places first use of the word in English somewhere between the 11th and 15th centuries. And just in case anyone was interested in Middle English, here's a very famous sample:

The following is from the first sentence of the Prologue from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed euery veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in euery holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe course yronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the niȝt with open ye—
So priketh hem Nature in hir corages—
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from euery shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blissful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.



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