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START / NODE 72Present-Day Englishc. 1500–today
legend
A traditional story or explanatory inscription, descended from Latin “things to be read.”
“A legend was not originally a dubious story. It was reading material—especially material appointed to be read.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
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FOLLOW EVERY BRANCH.
Compound components and competing routes stay separate. Every arrow retains its sound change, semantic change, scholar, confidence, and exact sources.
01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Present-Day Englishlegend
traditional story; inscription; explanatory key
↑GO DEEPER
Middle English · Middle Englishlegendea saint’s life or reading; inscription
- SOUND CHANGE
- Final unstressed -e was lost and spelling stabilized as legend.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- Saintly reading matter expanded to inherited story, inscription, and explanatory key.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established
- CHRONOLOGY
- First known use for the inscription sense: c. 1500.
THE ASTERISK IS A PROMISE
RECONSTRUCTION IS
NOT INSCRIPTION.
Crossing into a starred form changes the evidence class. The interface marks that crossing, preserves confidence, and never manufactures the next root to make the picture look complete.