"gun play"?

[Dave Wilton]

The lack of compounds in Middle English like "swordplay" and "shieldplay"
may have less to do with familiarity with classical sources than the fact
they are used in a poetic register.

Certainly, writers and readers from at least the 14th century were familiar
with Cicero and other classical writers. Chaucer, for one, is chock-a-block
with allusions and paraphrases of Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, and others, clearly
demonstrating that not only was he familiar with them, but he expected his
readers to be as well.

But the fact that it is a poetic trope may explain why the compounds are
found in Old English, but disappear from Middle English. Compounding is a
very productive method of word formation in Germanic Old English, but may be
less so in the Latinate poetics of Middle English. This might explain why
"play" is used in this sense, but the compounds are not found in poetic
coinages.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Robin Hamilton
Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 7:33 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "gun play"?

From: "Dave Wilton" <dave at WILTON.NET>

> The MED has many examples of the martial sense of play in Middle English,
> plei(e sense 4. Ex. from Lydgate's "Siege of Thebes" (a. 1450): "This was
> the play and the mortal game Atwen Thebans and the Grekys."
>
> Most of the Middle English cites continue this trope of conflating warfare
> and sport. I can't find any examples of compounds like "swordplay" or
> "shieldplay" (lindplegan) though.

Most of the LEME cites seem to relate to writers like Cicero who would be
better known in the Renaissance than in the Middle Ages, and predominantly
relate to gladiators and gladiatorial games.  Is it possible that "sword
play" and "sword player" are re-introduced to English at this point, and
thus independent of the earlier forms?  With "swordplayer" initially being a
term specifically applied to gladiators, and later extending its meaning to
take in swordsmen in general?

It might be possible to run a search for "lamista" and "gladiator" through a
corpus of Latin texts (in Perseus, say), identify the works and places where
these occur, then search out English translations from 1500-1650 and see how
the Latin terms are translated.  Then, ideally, compare these with pre-1500
English translations, if such exist.

Whether any result would justify the effort involved is another question ...

Robin Hamilton

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