maymen

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman mahaimer, alteration of Old French mahaignier, mehaignier after Frankish *hammjan (“to restrict”); thus equivalent to maym (“injury”) +‎ -en (infinitival suffix). Forms with /n/, /ɳ/ continue the unaltered Old French form.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmæi̯mən/, /ˈmæi̯nən/, (possibly) /maˈæi̯mən/, /mæi̯ˈæi̯mən/
  • (Northern) IPA(key): /ˈmæi̯ɳə/, /ˈmaɳə/, /ˈmɛɳə/

Verb

maymen (third-person singular simple present maymeth, present participle maymende, maymynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle maymed)

  1. To maim; to physically injure as to impair.
  2. (figuratively) To ruin or destroy.

Conjugation

Conjugation of maymen (weak in -ed)
infinitive (to) maymen, mayme
present tense past tense
1st-person singular mayme maymed
2nd-person singular maymest maymedest
3rd-person singular maymeth maymed
subjunctive singular mayme
imperative singular —
plural1 maymen, mayme maymeden, maymede
imperative plural maymeth, mayme —
participles maymynge, maymende maymed, ymaymed

1 Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Descendants

  • English: maim
  • Middle Scots: mainȝie, menȝe
    • Scots: meingyie (obsolete)

References

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.