West Saxon

noun

1. the Old English dialect of the West Saxon kingdom, dominant after a.d. c850 and the medium of nearly all the literary remains of Old English.
2. any of the English of the period before the Norman Conquest who lived in the region south of the Thames and west of Surrey and Sussex.
3. a person whose native tongue was West Saxon.

adjective

1. of or relating to the West Saxons or their dialect.

West Saxon

adjective

1. of or relating to Wessex, its inhabitants, or their dialect

noun

1. the dialect of Old English spoken in Wessex: the chief literary dialect of Old English See also Anglian Kentish
2. an inhabitant of Wessex

Word History and Origins

Origin of West Saxon¹

1350–1400; Middle English, for Old English Westseaxan Wessex; west, Saxon

Example Sentences

The West Saxon shilling seems originally to have been identical with the Mercian, but later it contained five pence.

From Project Gutenberg

Hence we have in some quite early (not West Saxon) pedigrees, five names given as ancestors of Woden.

From Project Gutenberg

Besides, there is the strongest external support for Woden in the very place which he occupies in the West-Saxon pedigree.

From Project Gutenberg

They are pre-literary, and were doubtless chanted by retainers of the West-Saxon kings in heathen days.

From Project Gutenberg

The division of the West Saxon see was put off until the death of the bishop.

From Project Gutenberg