"He is to-fore alle othre i-coren."

(6) Seethe.

O.E. Misc. p. 98.

In the Bible (Gen. xxv. 29), sod = boiled

occurs as the past tense.

"Wortes or other herbes

The whiche sche schredde and seeth for hir lyvinge."

CHAUCER, The Clerkes Tale, 1. 227.

"Some (fisch) thei solde and some thei sothe."

Piers Plowman, B. xv. 288.

"Yoothe or ybake."—Ib. p. 278.

"I force not whether it be sodden or roast.

The Four Elements, p. 35, ed. 1874.

"Of all manner of dishes both sod and roast.”—1b. p. 25. (7) "Hit snew [snowed] to hem as hit were floure."

Cursor Mundi, T. 1. 6381.

192. Some verbs that have now strong past tense or passive-participle, were once weak.1

The past tenses betid, hid, spit, spat, are only apparently strong. The M.E. forms betid-de, hid-de, spit-te, spat-te, (cp. swat-te, sweated) were weak.

*

I Forms marked thus are archaic. Forms in brackets are weak.

194. The strong conjugation comprehends all primitive verbs; to the weak belong all derivative and borrowed verbs.

The weak conjugation is sometimes called the regular conjugation, because the formation of the past tense of weak verbs by means of the suffix d, is the ordinary method now in use. The method of forming the past tense by reduplication and by vowel change, is quite obsolete. Children and uneducated persons often make the strong verbs conform to the weak conjugation, and say seed for saw, &c. We have done exactly the same with regard to many old verbs, as, shoved for shof, brewed for brew, &c.

195. Weak Verbs form their past tense by means of the suffix -d or -t.

In old English we find that this ending had a longer form -de, as, Ic ner-e-de I saved. This -de represents a more primitive dede = did, which is the past tense, (formed by reduplication) of the verb do.

I loved I love-did; thou lovedest = thou love-didst, &c.