meritote

Middle English

Noun

meritote (uncountable)

1. A children's game of swinging on ropes or similar until dizzy.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Myllers 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 662:

     What eylith you, some gay gerl, God it wote / Hath brought in you thus on the meritote.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

References

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