| 释义 |
▪ I. † burd Obs. (exc. in ballad poetry).
Forms: 3–4 burde, bird, 4–5 berd(e, birde, buyrde, buirde, byrd(e, (5 byurde), 5 beerde, 8, 9 bird, 5– burd.
[A word of obscure origin, found in the earliest ME. in form burde, frequent in Layamon, but afterwards chiefly in northern, or north midl. writers, and in alliterative verse.
Burd has been variously identified with bird n., and with bride. Although its later spelling is identical with the mod.Sc. form of bird, and it has been sometimes treated as merely a fig. use of this word, the earlier forms of both show them to be quite distinct. The identification with bride has somewhat more plausibility; but even if we take as the basis the Da. brud instead of the OE. brýd, the phonetic difficulties are many and serious. The various ME. spellings seem to indicate that the vowel was ü = OE. y; some of them also favour a dissyllabic form. The OE. adj. byrde ‘wealthy’, or perhaps ‘well-born, noble’ answers phonetically, and the sense ‘well-born’ or ‘wealthy lady’, would apparently make it a suitable companion-word to beorn. But the rarity of the OE. adj. (found once, Oros. i. i. 15, and there masc., se byrdesta ‘the wealthiest man’) presents obvious difficulties.]
A poetic word for ‘woman, lady’, corresponding to the masculine berne; in later use chiefly = ‘young lady, maiden’. (See bird n. 1 d.)
c1205Lay. 19271 æfter Arður wes iboren þeo ædie burde [c 1275 maide] æne. a1225St. Marher. 21 Cum nu forð burde to þi brudgume..alre burde brihtest. c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 80 Boþe burnez & burdez. c1340Cursor M. 12305 (Trin.) Ioseph went also soone Wiþ him marie þat burde [v.r. bird] bolde. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 131 The berdes þo songe Saul interfecit mille, et dauid decem milia. 1393Ibid. C. xxii. 135 The buyrdes [þo] songen. c1400Destr. Troy 12037 Fro bale deth þe burd [Helen] for to saue. c1430Hymns Virg. (1867) 13 Heil þou blessid beerde in whom [crist] was piȝt. c1440York Myst. xli. 209 But Mary byrde, thowe neyd not soo. a1560Rolland Crt. Venus iv. 418 Thay wald Venus make content Be sum new burd. a1600Ballad in D. Wilson Mem. Edinb. 33 My birde ladie in Halyroode. 17..Fair Helen ii. in Scott Minstr. Sc. B. 103 When in my arms burd Helen dropt. 1858Morris Welland Riv. 229 ‘It is some burd’, the fair dame said..‘Has come to see your bonny face’.
▪ II. burd
obs. and Sc. form of bird n., board.
1596Spenser F.Q. iv. ii. 35 Tunes of beasts and burds. |