Ormulum

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A late twelfth-century Middle English poem that paraphrases the Gospels in verse, written by a canon named Orm and known for its distinctive spelling system
2. The verse retelling of the Gospel readings composed around 1200 by an Augustinian canon called Orm, notable for its unusual doubled consonant spelling
3. An early Middle English religious poem, a metrical paraphrase of the Gospel readings for the church year, attributed to the writer Orm

Etymology: "Ormulum" is named after its author, Orm (or Ormin), an Augustinian canon who wrote a long poem of biblical paraphrase in Middle English in the early 13th century. The book's name is a nickname that took the author's name and dressed it in Latin, modeled on "speculum," meaning "mirror," the word medieval writers used in titles of instructional works, such as the "Speculum Maius" of Vincent of Beauvais. Orm's own text is famous for an unusual spelling system, with careful marks showing how short vowels were pronounced and how consonants were doubled, so the work is valued as evidence for the sounds of English at the time. The poem itself, a set of homilies on the Gospel readings, survives in a single manuscript, which is why the name Orm is tied so tightly to this one book.