Talk:lende

I didn't want to put this on the front page since it is a bit long. There is often a lot of bewilderment about this.

Just to be clear lend and lende are singular; lendes and lenden are plural.

Old English/Anglo-Saxon had lende and lenden (usually seen in kennings like lende-brǽð (lumbar region), e, f: -brǽda, an; m. A loin). The plural was lendenu and this was a standalone word.

We still do the same thing today. We don't often use the word loin by itself but we can. We usually speak of loins in plural or a loin-steak (tenderloin, sirloin) or a loin of pork with potatoes in the singular ... It's no different now than then.

Before it was "gird your loins" it was "gird the lendes"!

Byspels:.

Tak we þe armor of God..gird þe lendis in trowþ.

Þe ne sti3te ne þe pri3te in side, in lende, ne elles-where

And fe3et and breste and lenden And for þe lecherye sy3t In lenden of þe manne..Me schel þe mannes lenden anelye. &mdash; Shoreham Poems

Quickly the saddle is laying too much in front, pressing the shoulder. Just a little bit too far behind means: pressing on the loins (Lenden). A delicate matter. &mdash; blog comment ... AnWulf ... Ferþu Hal! 19:13, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

RFV discussion: January–May 2014
is just scannos of "leaden". gets some Middle English citations that I can't make heads or tails of. - -sche (discuss) 09:27, 30 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Middle English Dictionary = "loins"
 * --Catsidhe (verba, facta) 10:04, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Although when I look for I get a few cites which seem to have lendes as meaning a troop of warriors with a close relationship to a king. (e.g., e.g., e.g.) --Catsidhe (verba, facta) 10:14, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
 * All those examples are in the context of France. Are they really Middle English? The second one explicitly identifies the language as Tudesque, whatever that is. Spinning Spark  11:25, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Frankish, actually. And the term is used, as far as I can see, straight, as a technical term, and not in quotes or italics. So it's referring to a historical concept, but has apparently borrowed the term into the current language (in a similar way to byrnie). And Tudesque links to (theodiscus). --Catsidhe (verba, facta) 11:51, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
 * He thakked hire aboute the lendes weel (Chaucer) would seem to mean "He thoroughly slapped her on the loins" I would say that the entry should be changed from English to Middle English since there do not appear to be any recent citations. Spinning Spark  12:22, 30 January 2014 (UTC)


 * RFV-failed, moved to lendes. - -sche (discuss) 20:33, 29 May 2014 (UTC)