Middle English Dictionary Entry
wimple n.
Entry Info
| Forms | wimple n. Also wimpel, wimpil(le, wimppille, wimpul(le, winpel, winpul, vinple, (in surname) wimppel; pl. wimples, (?error) wimpele. |
| Etymology | LOE wimpel, winpel & OF (freq. AF/ONF) wimple, var. of guimple. |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
Note: Cp. gimple n.
1.
(a) A woman’s headdress covering the top, back, and sides of the head, including the cheeks and chin, and wrapped so as to cover the neck; also, a veil; also, a wimple as part of a nun’s official garb, bestowed ceremonially; haven the mantel and the ring and the ~ and the veil, to become a nun;
(b) ?a kind of cloth used to cover the pyx;
(c) hawk. ?a pattern or ruff of feathers covering the head and neck of a hawk;
(d) in surname.
Associated quotations
a
- a1200 Trin.Hom.(Trin-C B.14.52)163 : Ðe chire[che] cloðes ben to brokene and ealde, and hise wiues shule ben hole and newe…te albe sol and hire smoc hwit, þe haued line sward and hire winpel wit oðer maked geleu mid saffran.
- a1275 *St.Marg.(2) (Trin-C B.14.39)186 : Þoru þe miste of ihesu crist wid ir wimpel ho hin bond.
- a1300 Serm.Liþer lok (Trin-C B.1.45)105 : Ne leue leuedi ne be þi wimpil neuere so ȝelu…ne þi faire tail so long no so trailende þat tu ne schalt at euin al cuttid bileuin & tu schalt to bedde gon so nakid so þu were [borin].
- c1325(c1300) Glo.Chron.A (Clg A.11)6941 : Hire riche cloþes were of ydo bote þat heo was bi weued, Hire bodi wiþ a mantel, a wimpel aboute hire heued.
- (c1387-95) Chaucer CT.Prol.(Manly-Rickert)A.151 : A prioresse…Ful semely hir wympel pynched was.
- c1400 Bk.Mother (LdMisc 210)22/21 : Þis is bettere þan forto haue þe mantel and þe ryng and þe wympel and þe veil, with propurte, for Crist loueþ no propurte.
- a1450(?c1421) Lydg.ST (Arun 119)4502 : Al clad in blak with her wymples whyte…In the temple…They abood.
- a1425(?a1400) RRose (Htrn 409)3864 : Shame cam forth…and made it symple, Weryng a bayle [read: vayle] in stide of wymple, As nonnys don in her Abbey.
- (1425) Reg.Chichele in Cant.Yk.S.42 (Lamb 69)320 : Lego Elizabethe Pyttys unum flammeum wympul.
- a1450 Ordin.Nuns(2) (Vsp A.25)146/38 : Þen sal þe prelete gif hir hir wimpil, sayand, ‘Accipe peplum sacrum.’
- c1450 Capgr.Rome (Bod 423)43 : Flameum…is a kerchi or ellis a large wympil mad of red silk all þinne, with whech ȝong women hid her face þat here schameful a baschid chere schuld not gretly be aspied.
- c1450 Scrope Othea (Lngl 253)53 : Thesbe…fledde…but in the waye felle from hir a white wymple.
- c1450 Trin-C.LEDict.(Trin-C O.5.4)601/43 : Peplum: a wynpul.
- a1450 We bern abowtyn (Sln 2593)p.279 : We bern abowtyn non cattes skynnys…syluer pynnis, Smale wympele [?read: wympels] for ladyis chynnys.
- c1475(c1450) Idley Instr.(Cmb Ee.4.37)2.B.251 : She woll depeynte hirsilf as fresshe as ony rose, With wymples and tires wrapped in pride: Yelow vndre yelowe they couere and hide.
- c1475 Why Nun (Vsp D.9)350 : Your wymppylle and your vayle…and yowre devowte clothyng, Maketh men wyth-owten fayle To wene ȝe be holy.
- a1500(?a1450) GRom.(Hrl 7333)317 : The emperesse hydde hire face with a wympill, for she wolde not ben y-knowe.
- a1500 Mayer Nominale (Mayer)735/30 : Peplum: a wympulle.
- ?a1500 Lndsb.Nominale (Lndsb)792/21 : Peplum: a wympylle.
b
- (1473-4) Acc.St.Michael Oxf.in OAST 7885 : I kerchew de vinple pro pixide sacramenti.
c
- a1475 Hrl.Diseases Hawk A (Hrl 2340)24 : For to prayse an hawke þes are þe termys…A large fote, a fayr wympyll…brode in þe schuldyrs…yfe sche lake ony of þes…ȝe may not say a ryth fayr hawke.
d
- (1325) in Reaney Dict.Br.Surnames386 : John le Wymppelwebbe.