General explanations (continued)

Subordinate words

Under this head are here included: 1. (and mainly) Obsolete and variant forms of words, when these are so far removed in spelling as not to come closely before or after the regular forms, or readily to suggest them. These words are concisely referred to the main form to which they belong, with an explanatory synonym when the latter is itself obsolete; as almacantar, -urie, obs. ff. (= obsolete forms of) ALMUCANTAR; abugge, obs. w. and s.w.f. (= obsolete western and south-western form of) ABYE v.; almoise, -moyse, var. (= variant of) ALMOSE, Obs., alms. To economize space, variant forms which differ from the regular form only in the doubling of a single consonant or the converse, as appert for APERT, aple for APPLE, or in the interchange of u, v, or i, j, are not usually inserted. 2. Irregular or peculiar inflexions of Main Words. 3. Spurious or erroneous forms found in Dictionaries, or cited from single passages in authors, but having little or no claim to recognition as genuine constituents of the English vocabulary: their character is pointed, and their history briefly given. Entries for spurious words are enclosed in square brackets.