OE god, hlaford and drihten

Abstract

When a word is used in a new meaning without a formal alteration, how people perceive the semantic change? In this paper, an investigation is made on OE god, which was used for both pagan and Christian God in some prose texts and interlinear glosses, with its synonyms drihten and hlaford. The result will show the flexibility in the choice of renderings and semantic overlap of these words in biblical contexts.

Keywords: Old English; God; synonyms; Latin; Gospels; interlinear glosses