Wednesday, May 01, 2019

 

Quoniam

Geoffrey Chaucer, "Wife of Bath's Prologue," lines 607-608, Canterbury Tales:
And trewely, as myne housbondes tolde me,
I hadde the beste quoniam mighte be.
Jill Mann ad loc.:
The Latin word quoniam (meaning 'since') is used as a euphemism for the female genitals in the Lamentations of Matheolus (1237, 1369; also in Jehan le Fèvre's translation, II.1749).
See also James W. Marchand, "Quoniam, Wife of Bath's Prologue D.608," Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 100.1 (1999) 43–49.

Elsewhere in her prologue the Wife of Bath refers to her bele chose (lines 447, 510).



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