Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall, published in 1604, was the first single-language English dictionary ever published. |
It does turn out that the word "genealogy" has a number of different forms. As genealogists should all be aware, spelling was only relatively recently codified. Dictionaries were originally created to define words not force us all to spell them the same way. Quoting from the online edition of the OED, here are the variations in the spelling of the word "genealogy."
Forms: ME genialogi, geneologi, genelogi, ME genologi, (ME genolagye, 15 genologe, genology, Sc. genol(l)igie), ME–15 genelogie, (ME genelogy), 15 genalogey, ME–16 genealogie, (ME–15 genealogye), ME– genealogy.
By the way, the abbreviation "ME" refers to Middle English. You may have had some exposure to this language if you studied Chaucer in high school or college. The etymology of the word is also given and indicates that the word originated a considerable time before its first recorded instance in Middle English.
In any event, the earliest recorded use of the word in Middle English dates to the following:
You will, of course, recognize this verse as Timothy 1:4 from the King James Bible which reads:
4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.The verse is further rendered thus;
4 nether yyue tent to fablis and genologies that ben vncerteyn, whiche yyuen questiouns, more than edificacioun of God, that is in the feith. See John Wycliffe's Translation.And of course, Timothy had no idea what endless genealogies and fables would show up on the Internet in our own day.
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