Old English in Book of Mormon

[Freedom]

I am looking for a list of words used in the Book of Mormon that have a different meaning today. For example 'awful' use to mean full of awe rather than bad. Thanks for the help. 

[Robert F. Smith]

You can find a list of archaic, obsolete words used in the KJV Bible online at https://www.lds.org/new-era/1977/04/a-short-glossary-of-obsolete-words-in-the-king-james-new-testament?lang=eng , and see if any of them show up in the Book of Mormon.  Here is one example of an archaic usage of "curious" in the Book of Mormon:

Hagoth, a Nephite shipbuilder (Alma 63:5-8), who is said to be “an exceedingly curious man,” meaning “wrought with care and art; elegant; neat; finished; as a curious girdle; curious work,” in the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary.[1]

The description “exceedingly curious man,” perhaps meaning that he is very “skillful; erudite; careful, diligent” (Chaucer),[2]  may be part of a play on words based on Hebrew hāgâ “he mused, devised; meditated” (Psalms 1:2, 2:1, 38:12, 63:6, 77:12, 143:5, Joshua 1:8), and hāgût “musing,  meditation” (Psalm 49:3) – in either the intensive plural hagôt “devisings,” or abstract “curious, skillful,” i.e., with either an abstract nominal termination with -ôt, -ût typical of biblical Hebrew, Arabic, East Semitic, and Egyptian,[3] or as an intensive plural.[4]

 

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[1] Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 2 vols., 1^st ed. (N.Y.: S. Converse, 1828), meaning #7, “wrought with care and art; elegant; neat; finished; as a curious girdle; curious work,” citing Exodus 28:8,27, 35:32 (maḥašābōt), meaning #8, “Requiring care and nicety; as curious arts,” citing Acts 19:19 (perierga “magic”), online at http://machaut.uchicago.edu/websters .

[2] F. N. Robinson, ed., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2^nd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957), 942; cf. OED obsolete "skilful, ingenious, clever; subtle,"

[3] Joüon & Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, 2^nd ed., with corr., §§88Mj,k, 136f; Lipiński, Semitic Languages, §§ 29.46 Egyptian iЗwt “old age,” 29.47 Hebrew ḥokmōt “wisdom,” 30.3 malkūt “kingship,” 31.16 Assyro-Babylonian šarrūtu “kingship”; Hebrew niplĕʼôt “wonders, wonderful things,” Williamson, Annotated Key, 175 (Exodus 3:20); hammōṣĕʼôt “all the things which had befallen (them)” (Joshua 2:23), cited in Williamson, Annotated Key, 183, re Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, lesson 41, exercise (a) note 2; Joel Burnett, A Reassessment of Biblical Elohim (Atlanta: SBL, 2001); A. Cowley & E. Kautzsch, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, 2^nd ed. (Oxford, 1910), § 145 h-o; the last two sources cited by Ryan C. Davies and Paul Y. Hoskisson, “Usage of the Title elohim in the Hebrew Bible and Early Latter-day Saints,” in A. Skinner, M. Davis, and C. Griffin, eds., Bountiful Harvest: Essays in Honor of S. Kent Brown (Provo: Maxwell Institute/BYU, 2011), 113-135.

[4] Cf. LDS “Bible Dictionary,” 620, at “Behemoth.”

[Freedom]

1 hour ago, Robert F. Smith said:

You can find a list of archaic, obsolete words used in the KJV Bible online at https://www.lds.org/new-era/1977/04/a-short-glossary-of-obsolete-words-in-the-king-james-new-testament?lang=eng , and see if any of them show up in the Book of Mormon.  Here is one example of an archaic usage of "curious" in the Book of Mormon:

Hagoth, a Nephite shipbuilder (Alma 63:5-8), who is said to be “an exceedingly curious man,” meaning “wrought with care and art; elegant; neat; finished; as a curious girdle; curious work,” in the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary.[1]

The description “exceedingly curious man,” perhaps meaning that he is very “skillful; erudite; careful, diligent” (Chaucer),[2]  may be part of a play on words based on Hebrew hāgâ “he mused, devised; meditated” (Psalms 1:2, 2:1, 38:12, 63:6, 77:12, 143:5, Joshua 1:8), and hāgût “musing,  meditation” (Psalm 49:3) – in either the intensive plural hagôt “devisings,” or abstract “curious, skillful,” i.e., with either an abstract nominal termination with -ôt, -ût typical of biblical Hebrew, Arabic, East Semitic, and Egyptian,[3] or as an intensive plural.[4]

 

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[1] Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 2 vols., 1^st ed. (N.Y.: S. Converse, 1828), meaning #7, “wrought with care and art; elegant; neat; finished; as a curious girdle; curious work,” citing Exodus 28:8,27, 35:32 (maḥašābōt), meaning #8, “Requiring care and nicety; as curious arts,” citing Acts 19:19 (perierga “magic”), online at http://machaut.uchicago.edu/websters .

[2] F. N. Robinson, ed., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2^nd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957), 942; cf. OED obsolete "skilful, ingenious, clever; subtle,"

[3] Joüon & Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, 2^nd ed., with corr., §§88Mj,k, 136f; Lipiński, Semitic Languages, §§ 29.46 Egyptian iЗwt “old age,” 29.47 Hebrew ḥokmōt “wisdom,” 30.3 malkūt “kingship,” 31.16 Assyro-Babylonian šarrūtu “kingship”; Hebrew niplĕʼôt “wonders, wonderful things,” Williamson, Annotated Key, 175 (Exodus 3:20); hammōṣĕʼôt “all the things which had befallen (them)” (Joshua 2:23), cited in Williamson, Annotated Key, 183, re Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, lesson 41, exercise (a) note 2; Joel Burnett, A Reassessment of Biblical Elohim (Atlanta: SBL, 2001); A. Cowley & E. Kautzsch, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, 2^nd ed. (Oxford, 1910), § 145 h-o; the last two sources cited by Ryan C. Davies and Paul Y. Hoskisson, “Usage of the Title elohim in the Hebrew Bible and Early Latter-day Saints,” in A. Skinner, M. Davis, and C. Griffin, eds., Bountiful Harvest: Essays in Honor of S. Kent Brown (Provo: Maxwell Institute/BYU, 2011), 113-135.

[4] Cf. LDS “Bible Dictionary,” 620, at “Behemoth.”

Thanks, you are always a wealth of knowledge. 

[Freedom]

I also found the following

http://criticaltext.byustudies.byu.edu/archaic-vocabulary-book-mormon

[champatsch]

In May hundreds and hundreds of descriptions of Book of Mormon vocabulary and expressions will be published as part of the critical text project.  The first section alone covers 40 or so items of archaic vocabulary.  The two books of 1,400 pages will have 27 sections dealing with exactly this sort of thing.

[Scott Lloyd]

On 10/29/2017 at 11:28 PM, Robert F. Smith said:

You can find a list of archaic, obsolete words used in the KJV Bible online at https://www.lds.org/new-era/1977/04/a-short-glossary-of-obsolete-words-in-the-king-james-new-testament?lang=eng , and see if any of them show up in the Book of Mormon.  Here is one example of an archaic usage of "curious" in the Book of Mormon:

Hagoth, a Nephite shipbuilder (Alma 63:5-8), who is said to be “an exceedingly curious man,” meaning “wrought with care and art; elegant; neat; finished; as a curious girdle; curious work,” in the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary.[1]

The description “exceedingly curious man,” perhaps meaning that he is very “skillful; erudite; careful, diligent” (Chaucer),[2]  may be part of a play on words based on Hebrew hāgâ “he mused, devised; meditated” (Psalms 1:2, 2:1, 38:12, 63:6, 77:12, 143:5, Joshua 1:8), and hāgût “musing,  meditation” (Psalm 49:3) – in either the intensive plural hagôt “devisings,” or abstract “curious, skillful,” i.e., with either an abstract nominal termination with -ôt, -ût typical of biblical Hebrew, Arabic, East Semitic, and Egyptian,[3] or as an intensive plural.[4]

 

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[1] Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 2 vols., 1^st ed. (N.Y.: S. Converse, 1828), meaning #7, “wrought with care and art; elegant; neat; finished; as a curious girdle; curious work,” citing Exodus 28:8,27, 35:32 (maḥašābōt), meaning #8, “Requiring care and nicety; as curious arts,” citing Acts 19:19 (perierga “magic”), online at http://machaut.uchicago.edu/websters .

[2] F. N. Robinson, ed., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2^nd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957), 942; cf. OED obsolete "skilful, ingenious, clever; subtle,"

[3] Joüon & Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, 2^nd ed., with corr., §§88Mj,k, 136f; Lipiński, Semitic Languages, §§ 29.46 Egyptian iЗwt “old age,” 29.47 Hebrew ḥokmōt “wisdom,” 30.3 malkūt “kingship,” 31.16 Assyro-Babylonian šarrūtu “kingship”; Hebrew niplĕʼôt “wonders, wonderful things,” Williamson, Annotated Key, 175 (Exodus 3:20); hammōṣĕʼôt “all the things which had befallen (them)” (Joshua 2:23), cited in Williamson, Annotated Key, 183, re Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, lesson 41, exercise (a) note 2; Joel Burnett, A Reassessment of Biblical Elohim (Atlanta: SBL, 2001); A. Cowley & E. Kautzsch, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, 2^nd ed. (Oxford, 1910), § 145 h-o; the last two sources cited by Ryan C. Davies and Paul Y. Hoskisson, “Usage of the Title elohim in the Hebrew Bible and Early Latter-day Saints,” in A. Skinner, M. Davis, and C. Griffin, eds., Bountiful Harvest: Essays in Honor of S. Kent Brown (Provo: Maxwell Institute/BYU, 2011), 113-135.

[4] Cf. LDS “Bible Dictionary,” 620, at “Behemoth.”

Your definition does not grammatically fit the usage in the Book of Mormon regarding Hagoth unless you mean Hagoth himself was made with exceedingly great care and skill. 

On the other hand, your definition could apply to another instance in the Book of Mormon where curious is applied to the workmanship of the Liahona. 

Edited March 4, 2018 by Scott Lloyd

[Robert F. Smith]

3 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Your definition does not grammatically fit the usage in the Book of Mormon regarding Hagoth unless you mean Hagoth himself was made with exceedingly great care and skill. 

Yes, you are correct if we are using the 1828 Webster's definition I gave

I was attempting to say that Hagoth is Hebrew Hāgût which means "curious, skillful" (abstraction), and that the English word "curious" which is applied to him fits very well the OED obsolete "skilful, ingenious, clever; subtle," which was the meaning in the time of Chaucer.  I don't have a subscription to the OED (too expensive), so cannot check just now, but I would not be surprised if that Middle English meaning continued up through Early Modern English.

Quote

On the other hand, you definition could apply to another instance in the Book of Mormon where curious is applied to the workmanship of the Liahona. 

Yes, the "curious workmanship."  As in Ex 35:31-32 "workmanship; and to devise curious works...in brass"; Ps 139:15 "curiously wrought."  So we know that was typical for KJV, Jacobean & Elizabethan, and Geneva Bible English.  Haven't checked Wycliffe & Tyndale versions.

Edited March 3, 2018 by Robert F. Smith