Rachel Fletcher
@rafletcher.bsky.social
Leiden University. Working on the reception of Old English in 19th-century Europe. Dictionary enthusiast.
Pinned
Rachel Fletcher
@rafletcher.bsky.social
· Nov 14
Gosh. Hello, new followers! I assume you found me through the lexicography starter pack, so I'd better justify my existence in it.
I spent three years in ELT lexicography, but am currently in academia, where I'm working on the history of Old English scholarship (including OE dictionaries!)
I spent three years in ELT lexicography, but am currently in academia, where I'm working on the history of Old English scholarship (including OE dictionaries!)
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
I'm soon going to have to start thinking about my US-to-UK and UK-to-US Words of the Year. Nominations welcome!!
Here's an old blog post explaining what qualifies as a SbaCL WotY: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2022/11/woty...
Here's an old blog post explaining what qualifies as a SbaCL WotY: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2022/11/woty...
WotY news and Lynneguist news
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:12 AM
I'm soon going to have to start thinking about my US-to-UK and UK-to-US Words of the Year. Nominations welcome!!
Here's an old blog post explaining what qualifies as a SbaCL WotY: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2022/11/woty...
Here's an old blog post explaining what qualifies as a SbaCL WotY: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2022/11/woty...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
✍ Introducing ✍
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography
gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/
AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.
#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.
Love g 🗃️
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography
gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/
AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.
#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.
Love g 🗃️
Sharpie
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for apprentice Early Modern palaeographers
gjhilton.github.io
November 12, 2025 at 11:11 PM
✍ Introducing ✍
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography
gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/
AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.
#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.
Love g 🗃️
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography
gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/
AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.
#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.
Love g 🗃️
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Made a site where you can practise Old English scansion. You get given a half-line and have to select which of Sievers's five types it belongs to.
Just Beowulf for now, but that's 6364 half-lines to be getting on with: dgplacenames.github.io/scansion/
[Data: clasp.ell.ox.ac.uk/]
Just Beowulf for now, but that's 6364 half-lines to be getting on with: dgplacenames.github.io/scansion/
[Data: clasp.ell.ox.ac.uk/]
November 7, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Made a site where you can practise Old English scansion. You get given a half-line and have to select which of Sievers's five types it belongs to.
Just Beowulf for now, but that's 6364 half-lines to be getting on with: dgplacenames.github.io/scansion/
[Data: clasp.ell.ox.ac.uk/]
Just Beowulf for now, but that's 6364 half-lines to be getting on with: dgplacenames.github.io/scansion/
[Data: clasp.ell.ox.ac.uk/]
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Prudence Elizabeth Frances Walter (1859–1941) is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a brief piece about her. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/the-quotatio...
October 19, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Prudence Elizabeth Frances Walter (1859–1941) is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a brief piece about her. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/the-quotatio...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Cornelius Paine (1809–90) is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a piece about him. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/the-quotatio...
October 17, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Cornelius Paine (1809–90) is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a piece about him. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/the-quotatio...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
📣 Kemble Lecture 2025 #TOEBI #medievalsky
📜‘Myths and Monsters: Beowulf and the Etymologists’
🗣️Prof. Richard Dance, University of Cambridge
📅Thursday, 13 November 2025, 5pm
🏫Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
💻Register for Zoom: tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
📜‘Myths and Monsters: Beowulf and the Etymologists’
🗣️Prof. Richard Dance, University of Cambridge
📅Thursday, 13 November 2025, 5pm
🏫Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
💻Register for Zoom: tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
October 17, 2025 at 3:29 PM
📣 Kemble Lecture 2025 #TOEBI #medievalsky
📜‘Myths and Monsters: Beowulf and the Etymologists’
🗣️Prof. Richard Dance, University of Cambridge
📅Thursday, 13 November 2025, 5pm
🏫Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
💻Register for Zoom: tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
📜‘Myths and Monsters: Beowulf and the Etymologists’
🗣️Prof. Richard Dance, University of Cambridge
📅Thursday, 13 November 2025, 5pm
🏫Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
💻Register for Zoom: tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
📣 #TOEBI #medievalsky Kemble Lecture 2025
📜‘Myths and Monsters: Beowulf and the Etymologists’
🗣️Prof. Richard Dance, University of Cambridge
📅Thursday, 13 November 2025, 5pm
🏫Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
💻Register for Zoom: tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
📜‘Myths and Monsters: Beowulf and the Etymologists’
🗣️Prof. Richard Dance, University of Cambridge
📅Thursday, 13 November 2025, 5pm
🏫Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
💻Register for Zoom: tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
October 10, 2025 at 1:20 PM
📣 #TOEBI #medievalsky Kemble Lecture 2025
📜‘Myths and Monsters: Beowulf and the Etymologists’
🗣️Prof. Richard Dance, University of Cambridge
📅Thursday, 13 November 2025, 5pm
🏫Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
💻Register for Zoom: tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
📜‘Myths and Monsters: Beowulf and the Etymologists’
🗣️Prof. Richard Dance, University of Cambridge
📅Thursday, 13 November 2025, 5pm
🏫Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
💻Register for Zoom: tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
We're absolutely delighted to invite you to this upcoming symposium on Nineteenth-Century Medievalisms, co-organised by the New York Medieval Society and the LMS!
It will take place on 18 Oct 2025. Please join through this link: us02web.zoom.us/j/8729115924...
We look forward to seeing you all! 🙂
It will take place on 18 Oct 2025. Please join through this link: us02web.zoom.us/j/8729115924...
We look forward to seeing you all! 🙂
September 18, 2025 at 8:49 AM
We're absolutely delighted to invite you to this upcoming symposium on Nineteenth-Century Medievalisms, co-organised by the New York Medieval Society and the LMS!
It will take place on 18 Oct 2025. Please join through this link: us02web.zoom.us/j/8729115924...
We look forward to seeing you all! 🙂
It will take place on 18 Oct 2025. Please join through this link: us02web.zoom.us/j/8729115924...
We look forward to seeing you all! 🙂
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
The elusive H. S. Bhide is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a piece about him. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/miscellaneou...
October 7, 2025 at 7:56 PM
The elusive H. S. Bhide is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a piece about him. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/miscellaneou...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:
October 2, 2025 at 3:17 PM
In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
#OTD 342 years ago, Elizabeth Elstob (1683–1756) was born 🥳 A translator and a pioneer of Old English studies, she authored "The Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue", the first Old English grammar written in English.
#LinguisticBirthdays #WomenInLinguistics #Histlx
#LinguisticBirthdays #WomenInLinguistics #Histlx
September 29, 2025 at 11:48 AM
#OTD 342 years ago, Elizabeth Elstob (1683–1756) was born 🥳 A translator and a pioneer of Old English studies, she authored "The Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue", the first Old English grammar written in English.
#LinguisticBirthdays #WomenInLinguistics #Histlx
#LinguisticBirthdays #WomenInLinguistics #Histlx
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
A global collection of conversations revealing how dictionaries have evolved and influenced language across twenty different traditions.
Conversations on Dictionaries edited by Ilan Stavans
Pre-Order today!
#Linguistics #LangSky 📚
https://cup.org/4mGjF6m
Conversations on Dictionaries edited by Ilan Stavans
Pre-Order today!
#Linguistics #LangSky 📚
https://cup.org/4mGjF6m
September 8, 2025 at 4:00 PM
A global collection of conversations revealing how dictionaries have evolved and influenced language across twenty different traditions.
Conversations on Dictionaries edited by Ilan Stavans
Pre-Order today!
#Linguistics #LangSky 📚
https://cup.org/4mGjF6m
Conversations on Dictionaries edited by Ilan Stavans
Pre-Order today!
#Linguistics #LangSky 📚
https://cup.org/4mGjF6m
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Interested in letter-writing in early medieval Britain? A three-year postdoc on @francescatinti.bsky.social’s and my project is now available. Apps close on 17th Oct. Let me know if you have any questions and please circulate! 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
Job Opportunity at the University of Kent: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Are you passionate about early medieval Britain? Do you have advanced knowledge of Medieval Latin and interested in the analysis of Latin letter-writing? If yes, then you may be interested in this f...
jobs.kent.ac.uk
September 29, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Interested in letter-writing in early medieval Britain? A three-year postdoc on @francescatinti.bsky.social’s and my project is now available. Apps close on 17th Oct. Let me know if you have any questions and please circulate! 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
I guess I should share this, as I'm in it. On the other hand, if you read it and don't think you'll be interested in the conversations with any of the other lexicographers in the book, then you're that much less likely to buy the book. But what the hell.
lithub.com/how-to-build...
lithub.com/how-to-build...
How to Build a Dictionary: On the Hard Art of Popular Lexicography
At the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century, about 400 million people are native English speakers. With those for whom English is a second language, the number reaches far above: betw…
lithub.com
September 29, 2025 at 6:13 PM
I guess I should share this, as I'm in it. On the other hand, if you read it and don't think you'll be interested in the conversations with any of the other lexicographers in the book, then you're that much less likely to buy the book. But what the hell.
lithub.com/how-to-build...
lithub.com/how-to-build...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month
www.jstor.org/action/showL...
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month
www.jstor.org/action/showL...
September 29, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month
www.jstor.org/action/showL...
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month
www.jstor.org/action/showL...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
4-year funded PhD in Old Norse-Viking Studies at UCC, working on the Literature & Art strand of the NorseMap Project. www.ucc.ie/en/hr/vacanc...
September 25, 2025 at 3:59 PM
4-year funded PhD in Old Norse-Viking Studies at UCC, working on the Literature & Art strand of the NorseMap Project. www.ucc.ie/en/hr/vacanc...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
The elephant rides again! 🐘 Join us on a journey from the palaces of Baghdad, through the streets of Córdoba and all the way to the forests of Aachen #medievalsky
Now in #paperback, The Emperor and the Elephant by @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social is a new history of Christian-Muslim relations in the #Carolingian period that provides a fresh account of events by drawing on Arabic as well as western sources.
Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
September 24, 2025 at 6:30 PM
The elephant rides again! 🐘 Join us on a journey from the palaces of Baghdad, through the streets of Córdoba and all the way to the forests of Aachen #medievalsky
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
A scolding usage note, from Webster's 1864.
Does anyone know of such things (as an organized category of typeset notes) in an earlier dictionary?
@misterslang.bsky.social @jessesword.com @jacklynch000.bsky.social
Does anyone know of such things (as an organized category of typeset notes) in an earlier dictionary?
@misterslang.bsky.social @jessesword.com @jacklynch000.bsky.social
September 24, 2025 at 7:01 PM
A scolding usage note, from Webster's 1864.
Does anyone know of such things (as an organized category of typeset notes) in an earlier dictionary?
@misterslang.bsky.social @jessesword.com @jacklynch000.bsky.social
Does anyone know of such things (as an organized category of typeset notes) in an earlier dictionary?
@misterslang.bsky.social @jessesword.com @jacklynch000.bsky.social
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Paget Jackson Toynbee (1855–1932) is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a piece about him. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/the-quotatio...
September 23, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Paget Jackson Toynbee (1855–1932) is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a piece about him. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/the-quotatio...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Stefan Fatsis on the current state of American lexicography www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
Is This the End of the Dictionary?
Obsolete (adj.): no longer in use or no longer useful
www.theatlantic.com
September 21, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Stefan Fatsis on the current state of American lexicography www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Out today!💀 (advance access, open access) my little note entitled 'Hamlet’s Garbage', Notes & Queries par excellence, and a small preview of the sorts of things that I explore in my forthcoming Textile Shakespeare: academic.oup.com/nq/article/d...
Hamlet’s Garbage
In Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, the prince Nanki-Poo, disguised as a wandering minstrel, terms himself ‘a thing of shreds and patches’, adapting and
academic.oup.com
September 22, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Out today!💀 (advance access, open access) my little note entitled 'Hamlet’s Garbage', Notes & Queries par excellence, and a small preview of the sorts of things that I explore in my forthcoming Textile Shakespeare: academic.oup.com/nq/article/d...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
A fabulous looking new book from Tonicha Upham exploring all the Arabic and Persian evidence on Rus burials and sacrifices, complete with translations! #medievalsky #vikings
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Death Rituals
Cambridge Core - Global History - Death Rituals
www.cambridge.org
September 15, 2025 at 10:56 AM
A fabulous looking new book from Tonicha Upham exploring all the Arabic and Persian evidence on Rus burials and sacrifices, complete with translations! #medievalsky #vikings
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Reasons to read/not read my new book:
Pros:
-You'll finally figure out what "puce" is
-The phrase "cattier than a hot tin roof" is used in reference to opponent color theory
-Pliny the Elder joke
-Weird history & shit
Cons:
-Very little cussing
-You might cry at this one spot?
-History & shit
Pros:
-You'll finally figure out what "puce" is
-The phrase "cattier than a hot tin roof" is used in reference to opponent color theory
-Pliny the Elder joke
-Weird history & shit
Cons:
-Very little cussing
-You might cry at this one spot?
-History & shit
September 16, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Reasons to read/not read my new book:
Pros:
-You'll finally figure out what "puce" is
-The phrase "cattier than a hot tin roof" is used in reference to opponent color theory
-Pliny the Elder joke
-Weird history & shit
Cons:
-Very little cussing
-You might cry at this one spot?
-History & shit
Pros:
-You'll finally figure out what "puce" is
-The phrase "cattier than a hot tin roof" is used in reference to opponent color theory
-Pliny the Elder joke
-Weird history & shit
Cons:
-Very little cussing
-You might cry at this one spot?
-History & shit
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
shoutout to tumblr user kleinergeist for this post which is going straight into my powerpoint for Grendel day in my monster class this week
September 14, 2025 at 2:41 PM
shoutout to tumblr user kleinergeist for this post which is going straight into my powerpoint for Grendel day in my monster class this week
Reposted by Rachel Fletcher
Congratulations to Dr Ben Guy, who has been awarded an AHRC standard grant to fund a major collaborative project on the early Welsh charters and their boundaries!
www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/09...
www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/09...
Congratulations: Dr Ben Guy awarded an AHRC Standard Grant for project on early Welsh charters | Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic
www.asnc.cam.ac.uk
September 11, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Congratulations to Dr Ben Guy, who has been awarded an AHRC standard grant to fund a major collaborative project on the early Welsh charters and their boundaries!
www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/09...
www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/09...