OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND EXERCISE BOOK

85 RULE OF SYNTAX.
Adjectives agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case; but participles, when used predicatively,
may remain uninflected (§ 138, § 140).
86 VOCABULARY.
dēad, dead.
eall, all.
hāl 1 , whole, hale.
heard, hard.
ðæt hors, horse.
lēof, dear [as lief].
lȳtel, little.
micel, great, large.
mǫnig, many.
niman, to take [nimble, numb].
nīwe, new.
rīce, rich, powerful.
87. EXERCISES.
I. 1. Ðās scipu ne sind swīðe swift, ac hīe sind swīðe stælwierðu.
2. Sēo gōde cwēn giefð ǣlcum ðegne mǫniga giefa.
3. Dēs wīsa cyning hæfð mǫnige micele tūnas on his rīce.
4. Nǣnig mǫn is wīs on eallum ðingum.
sōð, true [sooth-sayer].
stælwierðe, 2 serviceable
[stalwart].
swīðe, very.
sē tūn, town, village.
sē ðegn, servant, thane, warrior.
ðæt ðing, thing.
sē weg, way.
wīs, wise.
wið (with acc.), against, in a
hostile sense [with-stand].
sē ilca, the same [of that ilk].
5. Ðȳ ilcan dæge (§ 98, (2)) mǫn fǫnd (found) ðone ðegn ðe mīnes wines bēc hæfde.
6. Ealle ðā segas ðā ðe swift hors habbað rīdað wið ðone bǫnan.
1
Hālig, holy, contains, of course, the same root. “I find,” says Carlyle, “that you could not get any better
definition of what ‘holy’ really is than ‘health—completely healthy.’”
2 This word has been much discussed. The older etymologists explained it as meaning worth stealing. A
more improbable conjecture is that it means worth a stall or place. It is used of ships in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
As applied to men, Skeat thinks it meant good or worthy at stealing; but the etymology is still unsettled.
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