septemtrioun

Middle English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin septentriō, septentriōnem. Compare Modern English septentrion.

Noun

septemtrioun

1. septentrion
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Monkes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, line 2467:

     Bothe est and weste, [south], and septemtrioun.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer Boece, Book II

     And ek this Nero governyde by ceptre alle the peples that ben undir the colde sterres that highten the septemtryones. (This is to seyn he governede alle the peples that ben under the partye of the north.)

References

• “septemtrioun”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.