VOCABULARY LOSS

Words not only change their meanings. They are frequently discarded from the language. In the past, 'anon' meant 'immediately', 'gyve' meant 'fetter', and 'horologe' meant 'clock'. The following words used in Othello are no longer current in English but their meanings can usually be gauged from the contexts in which they occur.

CERTES (I, i, 16) certainly

THEORIC (I, i, 24) theory

TOGED (I, i, 25) dressed in a toga

ANCIENT (I, i, 33) ensign

AFFINED (I, i, 39) constrained

OWE (I, i, 67) own

GERMANS (I, i, 114) close relatives

YERKED (I, ii, 5) thrust, pushed

CARACK (I, ii, 50) ship

INJOINTED (I, iii, 35) united

ENGLUTS (I, iii, 57) swallows up

ANTRES (I, iii, 139) caves

GRISE (I, iii, 198) step

AGNIZE (I, iii, 229) acknowledge

SEEL (I, iii, 266) blind

ACERBE (I, iii, 345) bitter

ENCHAFED (II, i, 17) angry

SE'NNIGHT (II, i, 77) week

ENWHEEL (II, i, 87) encircle

SALT (II, i, 233) lusting, lustful

LOWN (II, iii, 87) rogue, fool

MAZZARD (II, iii, 148) head

QUILLETS (III, i, 23) quibbles

WIT (III, iii, 463) intelligence

ECSTACY (IV, i, 79) fit

CALLET (IV, ii, 120) whore, drab

MOE (IV, iii, 54) more

RELUME (V, ii, 13) relight

REPROBANCE (V, ii, 208) damnation.

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