Dictionnaire du français médiéval by Takeshi Matsumura (review)

It would be impossible to find fault with Takeshi Matsumura's lexicography: his work in the present dictionary is, as expected, exceptionally thorough and precise. The dictionary provides an update and corrections to the two standard dictionaries of Old French, that is, Adolf Tobler and Erhard Lommatzschs Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch (Berlin: Steiner, 1925–2008) and F. E. Godefroy's Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du ix^e au xv^e siècles (Paris: Vieweg, 1880–1902). In addition, it provides each lemma with an etymological reference to Walther von Wartburg's Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (FEW; Bonn: Klopp, 1922–), for which it equally offers occasional emendations. Readers will find that entries reference entries in the DEAF (Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français, ed. by K. Baldinger, F. Mohren, and T. Stadtler (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1974–)) and rely on its sigla for all citations provided. Less use is made of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND; http://www.anglo-norman.net) and the Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (DMF; http://www.atilf.fr/dmf) and, as a result, a limited number of terms found in these latter dictionaries are lacking from the present dictionary; see, for instance, the AND sub 'jeofaille' and the DMF sub 'jefaille'. The entries in the dictionary offer limited semantic description of the words, preferring to present their core senses; although apt users will be able to find more ample description using the references provided to other dictionaries. The lemma is followed by the etymological reference as well as an indication of dialectal use. Every sense is illustrated with a citation, generally, though not always, representing the earliest use of the word. With the transition of many of the referenced dictionaries to an online-only format (AND, DMF, and FEW, and DEAF as an online/print hybrid), it is somewhat surprising that this work has not been offered in a similar format: as all of these projects continue to add to their dictionaries, their discovery of new lemmas, senses, and earlier attestations will not be reflected in this dictionary. That said, this is an excellent work of reference and is to be recommended as a starting point for all those interested in the lexis of medieval French; it is a great improvement on earlier lexicographical works. It is only to be regretted that the publisher did not supply this work of scholarship with a more robust binding.