Anglo-Norman words: Word of the Month: Gagging, queasy and squeamish: Writing a dictionary is a never-ending process. As editors we are constantly moving forward through the dictionary, revising the original…

…In the end, the word remains obscure. Skömm remains the most likely etymon of the word but it is difficult to know if escoimous  was an early adjectival derivation in Middle English (e.g. scamous) which was borrowed into Anglo-Norman by Bozon or conversely, if it was a Norse word used in Normandy (though otherwise unattested in Norman) which Bozon then picked up….