Chaucerian
Middle English literary
Chaucerian refers to Geoffrey Chaucer, the fourteenth-century English poet who wrote *The Canterbury Tales*, or to writing that resembles his style.
Chaucerian English is Middle English—archaic vocabulary, unfamiliar spellings, and verb endings that look foreign to modern readers.
Something Chaucerian might also suggest bawdy humor, pilgrimage narratives, or verse tales mixing high and low characters: The story had a Chaucerian earthiness.
Historic English ecclesiastical seat
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- satireMockery exposing vice
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- vernacularEveryday regional speech
Land-for-service social structure
- chivalryKnightly code of honor
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- courtlyRefined and dignified
- manorLanded aristocratic residence
guilds · knighthood · serfdom · estates · crusades · heraldry · jousting · minstrel
Two successive verse lines
- meterDevice that measures usage
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- verseMetered poetic passage
- scansionAnalyzing verse rhythm patterns
caesura · enjambment · stressed · unstressed · alliteration · rhythm · prosody · tetrameter
Everyday regional speech
- dialectRegional language variety
- pronunciationManner of speaking words
- etymologyWord origin study
- orthographyStandard writing conventions
syntax · lexicon · diction · archaism · word-hoard · glossary · translation · philology
Masculine given name
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- scribeManual document copier
- codexAncient bound manuscript
- folioSingle-fold page format
illumination · annotation · commentary · authorship · attribution · edition · paleography · analogue
Canterbury
Historic English ecclesiastical seat
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- satireMockery exposing vice
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
feudalism
Land-for-service social structure
- chivalryKnightly code of honor
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- courtlyRefined and dignified
manor · guilds · knighthood · serfdom · estates · crusades · heraldry · jousting · minstrel · troubadour
couplet
Two successive verse lines
scansion · caesura · enjambment · stressed · unstressed · alliteration · rhythm · prosody · tetrameter · refrain
vernacular
Everyday regional speech
- dialectRegional language variety
- pronunciationManner of speaking words
- etymologyWord origin study
orthography · syntax · lexicon · diction · archaism · word-hoard · glossary · translation · philology · declension
Geoffrey
Masculine given name
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- scribeManual document copier
- codexAncient bound manuscript
folio · illumination · annotation · commentary · authorship · attribution · edition · paleography · analogue · redaction
Miller
Occupational surname for grain-grinders
Chaucerianmodern
Of recent times
contemporary · present-day · Modern English · Elizabethan · Victorian
Chaucerianaustere
Severely simple and unadorned
elevated · puritanical · prudish · humorless · didactic
ChaucerianShakespearean
Of the Stratford playwright
Spenserian · Dickensian · Joycean · Kafkaesque · Hemingwayesque