The Old English words rendering virgo, virginitas and puella in the Anglo -Saxon Gospels: Their semasiological background in Anglo -Saxon literature

The purpose of the present work is to make etymological and semasiological researches into the terms for Latin virgo, vriginitas and puella which were employed by the Anglo-Saxon glossators of the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Rushworth Gospels, and by the translator of the West-Saxon Gospels. The Old English words used to express those concepts in those glosses and translation were hehstald, hehstaldhad hehstaltnisse, faemne, faemnhad, and maeden.;As Aldhelm's De Virnigitate, copies of which contain lots of interlinear glosses, aptly illustrates, the theme of virgin or virginity was very popular among the Anglo-Saxons. The present research is conducted with due consideration for the study of the use of those Old English words in all the Anglo-Saxon literature which are registered in A Microfiche Concordance to Old English. As far as the Latin source is traceable, it has been studied and used as a factor in judging the sense of the word.;By a profound study of all the relevant instances registered in the MCOE and by comparing terminological features in the Anglo-Saxon Gospels with those in the other literature, the following conclusions are drawn. It seems that choice of words as the terms for those concepts is a matter of an "individual" or a "school", as well as that of dialect. Aldred, the glossator of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Durham Ritual, was responsible for the sense "virgin" of the word hehstald, a variant form of hagosteald, originally referring to a male person. He drew a sharp distinction between hehstald, hehstaldhad, hehstaldnis , the terms for virgo or virginitas, and maeden, the term for puella. Farman, one of the two glossators of the Rushworth Gospels chose faemne for Latin virgo, and Owun, who has been supposed to have followed the Lindisfarne gloss, glossed virgo by hehstald but he also used faefne, a variant of faemne. The translator of the West-Saxon Gospels consistently employed faemne and faemnhad as the terms for virgo and virginitas, and maeden for puella. He is also unique in his terminological consistency.