Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek
The Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek ("Middle Dutch Dictionary") is the most important dictionary of the Middle Dutch language . It is often called MNW or Mnl. W. abbreviated.
The period covered by the MNW goes up to around 1500 in the first volumes, but there are also documents from the first half of the 16th century in the later volumes.
History of the dictionary
In 1873 Eelco Verwijs and Jakob Verdam began to collect text editions, old dictionaries and manuscripts that were to serve as the basis for the dictionary.
The first volume appeared in 1885. After Verwijs' death in 1880, Verdam continued to work alone and published the first eight volumes. When Verdam died in 1919, FA Stoett took over the job. He published the ninth volume in 1929, which was also the last. Later there were various additional volumes, including a. the band Bouwstoffen . Between 1885 and 1941 a total of eleven volumes were published in 's-Gravenhage.
Sort order
Since Middle Dutch had no uniform spelling , the problem of alphabetical sorting arose when creating the dictionary. Words that begin with c have to be searched in the MNW under k if the c was pronounced like k , e.g. B. confessie ("denomination"). Words that begin with z have to be searched for under s , even if the spelling with z could already occur in Middle Dutch, e.g. B. soeken or zoeken ("search").
Additional ribbon bouwstoffen
The MNW gives quotations that make the use of a keyword clear, but without specifying when and where the text in which the keyword appears was created. The evidence for these quotations (place and time of quotation) must be looked up in the supplementary volume Bouwstoffen . The meanings of the keywords (i.e. the translations into modern Dutch) in the nine main volumes are not very precise. If you want to know exactly what meanings a keyword had and how often these meanings occurred, then you also have to look up the supplementary volume Bouwstoffen .