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Words not only change their meanings but are frequently discarded from the language. In the past, \"leman\" meant \"sweetheart,\" \"sooth\" meant \"truth,\" and \"mewed\" meant \"confined, cooped up.\" The following words used in A Midsummer Night\'s Dream are no longer current in English, but their meanings can usually be gauged from the contexts in which they occur.
GAUDS (I, i, 33): showy toys
PREVAILMENT (I, i, 71): power
BELIKE (I, i, 130): perhaps
BETEEM (I, i, 131): allow
MISGRAFFED (I, i, 137): badly matched
COLLIED (I, i, 145): darkened
EYNE (I, i, 242): eyes
AN (I, ii, 47): if
ORBS (II, i, 9): fairy rings
LOB (II, i, 16): fool, clown
FELL (II, i, 20): fierce
BOOTLESS (II, i, 37): useless
BUSKINED (II, i, 71): wearing hunting clothes
MARGENT (II, i, 85): shore
MURRION (II, i, 97): murrain, disease of animals
HIEMS (II, i, 109): winter
REREMICE (II, ii, 4): bats
PARD (II, ii, 37): leopard
OWE (II, ii, 85): own
BY\'R LAKIN (III, i, 12): by our lady
OUSEL or WOOSEL (III, i, 118): blackbird
THROSTLE (III, i, 120): thrush
PATCHES (III, ii, 9): clowns
ABY (III, ii, 175): atone, pay for
WELKIN (III, ii, 356): heavens, sky
WOT (III, ii, 422): know
NEAF (IV, i, 19): fist
CRY (IV, i, 123): pack of hounds
DOLE (V, i, 270): source of sorrow
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