† i-prefix

Middle English prefix forming collective nouns, derivative adjectives, adverbs, and verbs; esp. used with the past participle of verbs, and in southern Middle English a normal prefix of the past participle like modern German and Dutch ge- in gesehen, gezien, Middle English i-sen, i-se, yseen, yse. In early Middle English, this prefix regularly appears as i-; words which did not survive to c1340 have rarely any other form. Later, y became (for graphic reasons) more usual, and was the form in which the prefix was borrowed from Lydgate, etc., by the Spenserian archaists, as in yclad, ycleped, ygo, ypent, ywis, etc. In this Dictionary, the earlier words which are known only with the i- spelling, are entered under I; those which survived to have y-, and esp. the archaistic yclad, yclept, etc. appear under Y. In manuscripts, the i often stands separate from the rest of the word, or is united to it by a hyphen; the latter practice is frequently followed by editors, and it has been adopted here, in order to render the character and sense of these words more distinct to the eye.