How to Search

How to search for the characters thorn <þ> or yogh <Š>

  • Thorn is represented as <þ> which is reproduced by holding down the 'Alt' key and typing 0254 (Alt + 0254).
  • The Anglo-Saxon character yogh is represented as <Š> which is reproduced by holding down the 'Alt' key and typing 0138 (Alt + 0138).
  • Different browsers and operating systems may or may not display and/or search for the yogh character.
    Yogh (text character) Š If the text character does not look the same as the graphic image, users may download and install the specially created Auchinleck font.
    Yogh (graphic image of character) Yogh (image)
  • Or copy and paste these characters into the search field from the examples above.

Any of the words or All of the words search

  • Enter a word or list of words to find them. 
    For example, put in: noble baroun to find all instances of noble and all instances of baroun.
  • Use quotation marks around phrases.
    For example, put in: "noble baroun" to find all instances of the phrase noble baroun.
  • Use 'Next Hit' and the other buttons on the top toolbar to navigate between the search results.

Boolean search

  • Boolean searching makes it possible to specify proximity.
    For example, put in: gret w/5 renoun to find all instances of grete which occur within 5 words of renoun.
    Or, put in: Gij w/5 "gret renoun" to find all instances of Gij which occur within 5 words of the phrase gret renoun.
  • Use 'w/10', 'w/15' or 'w/20' to search for within 10, 15 or 20 words.

Special characters

  • Search terms may include the following special characters:
? Matches any single character. For example, a search for m?che will find moche, meche, miche, myche, muche etc.
* Matches any number of characters. For example, a search for loue* will find loue, loued, loueþ, louest, louedest, louen etc.

Stemming

  • Check the Stemming box to include grammatical variants in your search. However, be warned, as dtSearch has been designed for use with Modern English, only Modern English forms will be found. For example, a search for play with the stemming box checked would find play, playe, playes, plays, played, playing, playinge, playinges but would not find playeþ, playeth, playande, playinde etc.

Fuzzy searching

  • Fuzzy searching enables you to search for variant spelling forms of a word. Check the Fuzzy Searching box then select the level of fuzziness from 1 to 10 using the character %. The number of % characters you add determines the number of differences dtSearch will ignore when searching for a word. The position of the % characters determines how many letters at the start of the word have to match exactly. For example,
m%ichel Word must begin with m and have at most one difference between it and ichel. So, would find: miche, mechel, mochel etc.
m%%ichel Word must begin with m and have at most two differences between it and ichel. So, would find all the above plus: meche, muche, middel etc.

Phonic searching

  • Phonic searching looks for a word that sounds like the word you are searching for and begins with the same letter. To ask dtSearch to search phonically, put a # in front of the word in your search request.
    For example, a search for: #speke will find spac, speche, spak, speke etc, but also schippes, spouse, spies etc.

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