The Term wir-candel in MED

Abstract

THE compound word wir-candel appears three times in fifteenth-century Oxfordshire churchwardens’ accounts cited in the Middle English Dictionary entry for wīr (1(c)), meaning ‘wire’:1 St. Michael’s, Oxford2 (1416–19), 14: Item, petunt sibi allocari pro wyrecandel ante crucem ad lux fulgebit in primo anno pro iiii libris et dimidio. … St. Michael’s, Oxford3 (1434–5), 32: Item, for i lib. of wyre candell of talow to the rode solere, ii d. St. Mary, Thame4 part 2 (1446), 56: For ij li. wyr kandyl at the same tyme, iij d. A wax covering on the fruit and leaves is extracted by scalding the fruit with boiling water and immersing them for a few minutes, the wax floats to the surface and is then skimmed off. The fruit is then boiled in water to extract the wax from the pulp and once more the wax is skimmed off. It is then strained through a muslin cloth and can be used to make aromatic candles [4, 6, 245]. These candles diffuse a delightful odour when burnt [245]. Unfortunately this species does not produce enough wax to make it commercially viable [115].6