mendinaunt

Middle English

Alternative forms

• mendynaunt

Etymology

Ultimately from Old French mendier (“to beg”), from Latin mendīcāre.

Noun

mendinaunt (plural mendinaunts)

1. a mendicant or begging friar
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Sompners 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, folio xlvi, recto:

     foꝛ it ſuffyſeth / Our loꝛde Ieſu, as holy wꝛyte deuyſeth / Yaue us enſample of faſtynge and pꝛayers / Therefoꝛe we mendicantes, we ſely freres / Ben wedded to pouerte and continence / To cherite, humbleneſſ, and abſtinence / [...] And therefoꝛe maye ye ſe that our pꝛayeres / (I ſpeke of us medicant, we freres) / Ben to the hye god moꝛe acceptable / Then yours, wyth your feeſt at your table

     For it suffices, our Lord Jesus, as the holy scriptures describe, gave us an example of fasting and prayers. Therefore we mendicants, we pious frairs are wedded to poverty and continence; to charity, humbleness, and abstinence [...] And therefore may you see that our prayers (I speak of us mendicants, us friars) are more acceptable to the high God than yours, with your feast at your table.

References

• “mendinant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “mendinaunt”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.