engyn

Middle English

Noun

engyn

1. engine, device
   • late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Squire's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 183-184:

     Ther may no man out of the place it dryve
     For noon engyn of windas or polyve; [...]

     No man there can drive it out of the place
     Despite any contrivance of windlass or pulley; [...]

2. skill, ingenuity; wit
   • Treatise on the Astrolabe

     But consider wel that I ne usurpe not to have founden this werk of my labour or of myn engyn.

   • late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Nun's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 338-339:

     Right as a man hath sapiences three,
     Memorie, engyn, and intellect also, [...]

     Exactly as a man has three mental faculties,
     Memory, imagination, and judgement also, [...]

References

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