Middle English Dictionary Entry

callen v.
Quotations: Show all Hide all

Entry Info

Forms callen v. Also cal(e, kalle(n. P. called(e, cald(e, caled, callit, calt, kalde, kalled, kelde; ppl. called, cald(e, caled, calt, ecalled, icald(e, icalled, kalde, kalled.
Etymology ON; cp. OI kalla; but cp. LOE ceallian.

Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)

1.
(a) To cry out, call, shout; (b) to cry out (sth.), say (sth.) loudly; (c) ~ after, to call for (sb.), summon; ~ on (upon), call to (sb.), address, invoke, summon, call on (sb. for payment); ~ to (unto), call to (sb.), address, invoke; (d) ~ after, to cry out for (sth.), ask for, demand, request; ~ on (upon), call upon (the name of sb.), pray in (someone's) name; (e) law to bring formal complaint of (an offense); bring up (a suit before sb.); ~ upon, bring up (a legal matter, a suit), call up (a case); bring suit for (payment).
Show 48 Quotations
2.
To call out for (sth.), ask for, pray for; demand, order; ~ ayen, take back (sth.), recall, recover; revoke (an agreement, a decree, an oath, a promise); ~ of, ask for (a quest, a pursuit); ~ of aqueintaunce, seek to be better acquainted with (sb.).
Show 16 Quotations
3.
(a) To summon (sb.), call (sb. to a place), call (sb. to do sth.); (b) ~ bi name, to greet (sb.) by name, summon by name; ~ forth (up), summon; ~ to account(es, call (sb.) to give an accounting of his actions; ~ to mind (remembraunce), remember (sth.); (c) to call (sb.) to account, accuse; (d) to invoke (a deity, etc.).
Show 39 Quotations
4.
(a) To invite (sb. to a feast, etc.), invite (sb. to do sth.); (b) to receive (sb.), welcome; ~ gest, receive or entertain a guest; (c) ~ faire, to greet (sb.) well, receive fairly, welcome.
Show 16 Quotations
5.
(a) To call (sth. by a certain name), name (sb. sth.), call (sb. good, etc.); ppl. called, named; (b) ~ bi (to) name, to call (sb.) by (a name); ~ in covent, declare (sb.) a member of a convent; otherwise called, also known as, alias; what ~ ye him, what-do-you-call-him, what's-his-name; (c) refl. to call oneself (sth.); (d) of a name: to be (sth.); (e) to ~, by name, to be so called; ?so to speak, as it were.
Show 43 Quotations

Supplemental Materials (draft)

  • a1475 When gonewey (Pep 1236)p.317 : When goneway shall on curtays call..Then Albeon skottlonde shall to hem fall..The rede londe fox shall ryse with all With glarynge grounde.
    • Note: New sense.
    Note: Gloss: To make a social visit (to sb.), pay a call.
    Note: Editor's (James M. Dean) note in Medieval English Political Writings, p. 19: "Goneway..Curtays. Perhaps Gone-Away and Courtesy, allegorical figures of rudeness and politeness, respectively..Another possibility: Goneril and Cordelia from the King Lear story (Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain book 2, chapters 11-14."--per MLL
Note: Correction: In sense 3.(a), the (1422) quot. is not exactly covered by the gloss "to summon (sb. to a place)." The quot. reads 'the charge and cure that we are called to by our Lord' ("charge and cure" are not places). Place may be implied in the 'call (sb.) to counsel' quots., but we don't define 'counsel' as a place in such constructions, either. (See counseil n., sense 2., "The act of discussing or conferring..callen (clepen) to ~," where some of the same quots. in callen v., sense 3.(a).--per MJW
Note: The list of variant spellings in the form section may be incomplete and / or may need revision to accord with standards of later volumes of the MED.

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