mægden

• mǣden

From Proto-West Germanic *magadīn.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmæj.den/

mæġden n

1. girl
   • The Anglo-Saxon version of the story of Apollonius of Tyre

     Đā ġewearþ hit þæt þǣs mǣdenes fōstormōdor intō þām būre ēode, ⁊ ġesēah hī ðār sittan on miċelre ġedrefednesse, ⁊ hire cwæð tō, "Hwiġ eart þū hlæfdiġe swā ġedrefedes mōdes?"

     It happened that the girl's foster mother came into the room and saw her sitting full of confusion, and said to her "Lady, why are you so troubled of mind?."

2. virgin, young unmarried woman
   • c. 994, Ælfric, On the Year

     Ǣlċe mōnað hēo yrnð under ān þǣra tacna. Ān þǣra tacna ys ġehāten aries, þæt is ramm; oðer taurus, þæt is fearr; ðridda gemini, þæt synd ġetwisan; fēorða cancer, þæt is crabba; fīfta leo; syxta virgo, þæt is mǣden; seofoða libra, þæt is pund orde wǣġe; eahtoðe scorpius, þæt is þrōwend; nigoða is sagittarius, þæt is sċytta; teoða ys capricornus, þæt is buccan horn, oððe bucca; endlyfta is aquarius, þæt is wæter-ġyte, oððe þe þe wæter ġyt; twelfte is pisces, þæt synd fixas.

     Each month runs under one of the signs [of the Zodiac]. The first of the signs is called aries, that is "ram"; the second is taurus, that is "bull"; the third is gemini, that is "twins"; the fourth is cancer, that is "crab"; the fifth is lion; the sixth is virgo, that is "virgin"; the seventh is libra, that is "pound" or "scales"; eighth is scorpious, that is "scorpion"; ninth is sagittarius, that is "shooter"; tenth is capricornus, that is "he-goat's horn" or "he-goat"; eleventh is aquarius, that is "pouring water" or "one that pours water"; twelfth is pisces, that is "fishes."

Strong a-stem:

• cniht

• Middle English: mayden, maiden, maidene, medene, maden, madane, mædene, mæidene, maȝden, meidene (Early Middle English)
  • English: maiden
  • Scots: maidin
  • Yola: mydhen
• → Middle Irish: maigden (see there for further descendants)

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “mægden”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.