"flesh" meaning in Middle English

See flesh in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /flɛːʃ/, /flɛʃ/
Etymology: Inherited from Old English flǣsċ, from Proto-West Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”). Etymology templates: {{glossary|Inherited}} Inherited, {{inh|enm|ang|flǣsċ|||g=|g2=|g3=|id=|lit=|nocat=|pos=|sc=|sort=|tr=|ts=}} Old English flǣsċ, {{inh+|enm|ang|flǣsċ}} Inherited from Old English flǣsċ, {{inh|enm|gmw-pro|*flaiski}} Proto-West Germanic *flaiski, {{inh|enm|gem-pro|*flaiski}} Proto-Germanic *flaiski, {{der|enm|ine-pro|*pleh₁ḱ-||to tear, peel off}} Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”) Head templates: {{head|enm|nouns|g=|g2=|g3=|head=|sort=}} flesh, {{enm-noun|-}} flesh (uncountable) Forms: flech [alternative], fleesh [alternative], fleisch [alternative], fleische [alternative], fleish [alternative], flesch [alternative], flesche [alternative], fless [alternative], flessh [alternative], flæsc [alternative, Early-Middle-English], flæsch [alternative, Early-Middle-English], flæsh [alternative, Early-Middle-English]
  1. flesh (especially that of a mammal) Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-flesh-enm-noun-nZ-DoFmn
  2. (Christianity, theology) A communion wafer Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-flesh-enm-noun-5ciuq9jI Categories (other): Christianity, Theology Topics: Christianity, lifestyle, religion, theology
  3. (anatomy) A muscle Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-flesh-enm-noun-nvD50Odg Categories (other): Anatomy Topics: anatomy, medicine, sciences
  4. meat, flesh for consumption Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-flesh-enm-noun-b1u~-xO7 Categories (other): Meats Disambiguation of Meats: 7 8 8 56 7 7 7
  5. A human or being Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-flesh-enm-noun-BeurrwDB
  6. The body, physical existence, nature (especially that of a human) Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-flesh-enm-noun-G0-XsPhP
  7. sexual intercourse, copulation Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-flesh-enm-noun-G-KUIQG8 Categories (other): Sex Disambiguation of Sex: 0 0 0 0 0 0 100

Alternative forms

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        "Early-Middle-English"
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        "A communion wafer"
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        "theology"
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          "name": "Anatomy",
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          "source": "w"
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        "A muscle"
      ],
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          "anatomy"
        ],
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          "muscle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(anatomy) A muscle"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
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        "anatomy",
        "medicine",
        "sciences"
      ]
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      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "7 8 8 56 7 7 7",
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        "meat, flesh for consumption"
      ],
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          "meat",
          "meat"
        ],
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          "flesh",
          "flesh#English"
        ]
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      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
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        "A human or being"
      ],
      "id": "en-flesh-enm-noun-BeurrwDB",
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          "human"
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          "being"
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          "existence"
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          "nature"
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        }
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        "sexual intercourse, copulation"
      ],
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          "sexual intercourse",
          "sexual intercourse"
        ],
        [
          "copulation",
          "copulation"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/flɛːʃ/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/flɛʃ/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "flesh"
}
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    "Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic",
    "Middle English terms inherited from Old English",
    "Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic",
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        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
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      "form": "flæsch",
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        "alternative",
        "Early-Middle-English"
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        "Early-Middle-English"
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  "lang": "Middle English",
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        "(Christianity, theology) A communion wafer"
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        "Christianity",
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        "religion",
        "theology"
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    },
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        "(anatomy) A muscle"
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        "uncountable"
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        "anatomy",
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    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "meat, flesh for consumption"
      ],
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          "meat",
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        ],
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          "flesh",
          "flesh#English"
        ]
      ],
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        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A human or being"
      ],
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        [
          "human",
          "human"
        ],
        [
          "being",
          "being"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The body, physical existence, nature (especially that of a human)"
      ],
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          "body",
          "body"
        ],
        [
          "physical",
          "physical"
        ],
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          "existence",
          "existence"
        ],
        [
          "nature",
          "nature"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "sexual intercourse, copulation"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sexual intercourse",
          "sexual intercourse"
        ],
        [
          "copulation",
          "copulation"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/flɛːʃ/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/flɛʃ/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "flesh"
}

Download raw JSONL data for flesh meaning in Middle English (4.3kB)

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  "section": "Middle English",
  "subsection": "noun",
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{
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{
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Middle English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (074e7de and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.