Semi-Saxon and the Presentation of Early English in Print

Knowing when Middle English began and what to call the period that began when Old English finished are problems that have beset historians of English for centuries. One of the attendant problems was that the name ‘Middle English’ was not used before 1830, when it was introduced under German influence, so there was a gap in nomenclature for the English that came after ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and before ‘English’. To some extent, this gap was filled by the term ‘Semi-Saxon’, first used by George Hickes in the early eighteenth century. This article looks at what was meant by ‘Semi-Saxon’ and how Middle English was presented in print, and suggests that there is a connection between the description and what is described: Semi-Saxon is printed using a palette of Anglo-Saxon sorts that is reduced in number from those deemed necessary to print Old English. This usage is traced from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, when, after a brief resurgence in the use of ‘Semi-Saxon’, the term ‘Middle English’ finally became established. The consequences of this development are briefly considered.