I'm wondering about the Wife of Bath and what she's got on her head in
the Canterbury Tales:
"Hir coverchiefs ful fyne weren of ground,
I dorste swere they weyeden ten pound
That on a Sonday weren upon hir heed."
Mainly I'm wondering about the use of the word "ground" in the first
line. I've seen a suggestion that this could translate to mean
"texture", as in "her coverchiefs were of a very fine texture".
The OED doesn't seem to offer any goodies, but perhaps I missed
something--the entries for "ground" are quite long! Does anyone have
other information about this?
Thanks,
Melanie Schuessler
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