læwede

læwede

1. (Early Middle English) alternative form of lewed

According to the OED, of uncertain origin, but likely from Vulgar Latin *laigo-, from Late Latin laicus (“of the people”) +‎ -ede, although the phonetic development is a difficulty.

Otherwise, formally resembling a derivative of the past participle of lǣwan (“to reveal, betray”) in the sense of "exposed as being unlearned" or "easily betrayed, clueless", from Proto-West Germanic *lāwijan (“to betray”), fitting a scenario where the word was influenced in meaning by similar sounding Latin laicus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæː.we.de/

lǣwede

1. lay; non-clerical
   • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church

     Ġelēaffulle lǣwede menn, þe on rihtum sinsċipe lybbað, āġifað þrītigḟealdne wǣstm gōdra weorca, ġif hī heora æw̄e æfter bōclīcum ġesetnyssum healdað, þæt is, þæt hī for bearnes ġestrēone, on alyfedum tīman, hǣmed begān, and bearneacniġende wīf and mōnaðsēoc forbūgan; and ðonne hēo leng tȳman ne mæġ,̇ ġeswican hī hǣmedes.

     Faithful lay people, who live in righteous marriage, yield thirtyfold fruit of good works, if their marriage follows the biblical decrees; that is, that they have intercourse for the procreation of children at permitted times, and abstain from intercourse with pregnant or menstruating women, and that at the time they can no longer procreate, they cease intercourse.

• Middle English: lewede, lewed, lewd, lewid, lewde
  • English: lewd
  • Middle Scots: lawit, lewit, lewd

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “lǽwede”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.