West ˈSaxon, n. and a. Hist.
Also West-Saxon.
[f. west a. + Saxon n. and a., after OE. West-seaxan pl.]
A. n.
1. pl. The division of the Saxons in England occupying the area south of the Thames and westward from Surrey and Sussex; also sing. an individual belonging to this group or area.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden VI. 403 Plegmundus..ordeyned..fyve [bishops] to þe lond of Giweysys, þat beeþ West Saxons. 1432–50 tr. Higden VII. 99 Edmunde Irensyde..subduede to hym the Westesaxons anoon. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 155 The thyrde [realm] was West Saxons, famous and myghty. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 232 Aidan winnis the feild vpon the Pechtis and Westsaxonis. a 1643 Baker Chron. (1653) 7 The third Kingdome of the Heptarchie, was of the West Saxons. 1714 Addison Spect. No. 569 ¶1, I was the other Day with honest Will. Funnell the West Saxon. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Money, Ina King of the West-Saxons. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxxviii. (1787) III. 618 note, Cerdic, the West Saxon. 1877 Tennyson Harold iv. i, Thou art but a West-Saxon: we are Danes! |
2. The dialect of Old English used by the West Saxons.
| 1844 Garnett in Proc. Phil. Soc. II. 17 The plural..totally unknown in West-Saxon. Ibid. 18 The discrepancies from the ordinary West-Saxon are specified. 1876 Sweet Ags. Reader p. xii, The West Saxon of the eleventh century differs in many respects from that of Alfred's reign. 1893 A. C. Champneys Hist. English 85 Northumbrian retains some very ancient forms not found in West Saxon. |
B. adj. Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, the West Saxons or their speech.
| 1570 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1576) 20 Kent was vnited by King Egbert..vnto the Westsaxon Kingdome,..and..gouerned after the Westsaxon law. 1670 Milton Hist. Brit. iii. 121 Before the West-Saxon Kingdome. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 231/2 During the West Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Danish dynasties. 1848 Latham Eng. Lang. (ed. 2) 91 The Psalter also exhibits this West-Saxon form. 1876 Sweet Ags. Reader p. xii, The old Northumbrian poems were also copied in the West Saxon dialect. 1893 A. C. Champneys Hist. English 86 The Southern or West Saxon plural, -aþ. |
Hence † West-ˈSaxonry, the kingdom of the West Saxons.
| 1650 C. Elderfield Civil Right of Tythes x. 70 Kenulph King of West-Saxon-rie. |