Fleyinge

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. An archaic Middle English form meaning the act of frightening or scaring someone or something
2. Obsolete spelling referring to the process of startling, alarming or putting fear into a person or animal
3. Used in older English to describe the action of scaring a creature or causing sudden fright

Etymology: "Fleyinge" is a Middle English spelling of a verb form that meant either "flying" or "fleeing," a sense split that modern English has since divided. In Old English these were two different verbs: "fleogan," to fly, and "flēon," to flee. Over the Middle English period their forms blurred together, so a spelling like this one could carry either meaning, and readers would have told them apart from context. The "-inge" ending is the Middle English present participle, the same ending that survives in modern "-ing." The "ey" spelling reflects the Old English diphthong in "fleogan," which later Middle English scribes wrote in several different ways. Exact spellings varied from scribe to scribe, so the precise meaning of any single attestation depends on the sentence it appears in.