[antir-heralds] OED Period spellings for Gryphon and Heart

[Wenyeva atte Grene]

At 1:55 PM -0700 4/25/07, Ursula Whitcher wrote:
>The OED s.v. <griffin>,1 says that <gryphon> is found from the 1500s
>onward, but I don't find an example of that spelling in the quotations.
>   One could probably argue that <gryphon> is reasonable from the
>variants given, but <griffon> seems better supported.  Here's the raw
>data from before 1650, with lots of spellings to pick from:

In case it helps in some way, I'll mention that the Middle English 
Dictionary has a bunch of lovely spellings as well, but no [gryphon], 
at 
http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=byte&byte=70695541&egdisplay=open&egs=70703869 
or http://snipurl.com/1i5io . Note that the forms list at the top 
doesn't show any [gry- ] variants, while the actual citations do (I 
don't know why).

If you are curious, the entry for the ME version of [heart] is at 
http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED20604&egs=all&egdisplay=open 
or http://snipurl.com/1i5jh. They are able to push back the the 
citation for the definition "Something resembling a heart: (a) an 
object, such as an ornament or piece of jewelry, in the shape of a 
conventionalized heart" a couple of decades earlier than the OED. But 
the spelling [heart] does not appear.

W
(who likes any excuse to browse the MED)



-- 
\-\ Wenyeva atte grene * "In tenebris lux"
  \-\ Armorum Servula, quam Ancoram Caeruleam dicunt
   \-\ Per chevron argent and vert, three beacons counterchanged.