Thus the fifth folio begins as follows:
Abminiculum . adiutorium.
Abelena . haeselhnutu.
Abiecit . proiecit.
Absida . sacrarium.
Abies . etspe.
Ab ineunte {ae}tate . infantia.
The chief interest of these Glossaries lies in the fact that a small
proportion of the hard words is explained, not in Latin, but in
Mercian English, of which there are two examples in the six glosses
here quoted. Thus Abelena, which is another spelling of Abellana or
Avellana, "a filbert," is explained as "haeselhnutu"; which is a
perfectly familiar word when reduced to its modern form of "hazel-nut."
And again, Abies, which usually means "a fir-tree," is here glossed by
"etspe." But this is certainly a false spelling, as we see by
comparing it with the following glosses in Epinal and Erfurt (Nos. 37,
1006):--"Abies. saeppae--s{ae}pae"; and "Tremulus. aespae--esp{ae}." This
shows that the scribe ought to have explained Abies by "saeppae,"
meaning the tree full of sap, called in French _sapin_; but he
confused it with another tree, the "trembling" tree, of which the
Old Mercian name was "espe" or "esp{ae}," or "aespae," and he miswrote
_espe_ as _etspe_, inserting a needless _t_.
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