I'm writing a manuscript set in the 14th century and want to use "daydream" as a verb, but according to Merriam-Webster, "daydream" as a noun was used starting around 1685 and as an intransitive verb, it started around 1820.

Before the 17th century, how did people describe the moments in one's day when you just kind of spaced out? I've racked my brain and can't think of what might have been used. Any ideas?

Interesting conundrum, ruby. I had no idea of the details writers must consider. I looked daydream up in the online OED, and it agrees with the 1820 date. I don't have any good ideas, though, and I couldn't find much in the thesaurus.

Depending of the form of the verb, how about rapt?

A tough question. (You'll probably have to do some research.) It may be that the word dream or imagination may be used in such a way. (I'd check the OED.) The French word for daydream is rêvasser and it seems to go back into the Middle French period (before the 17th century). There is also English reverie (a variant of revelry) from reve 'dream'. The Jesuits used the word meditation for a kind of directed dreaming or prayer. You might look into ecstatic visions, too, to see if they were associated with the more mundane daydreaming. (There was a book by Richard Kearney, The Wake of the Imagination, which I read years ago. It had a section on the history of imagination in the West starting with the Jews and Greeks.)

Yes, "imagination" was one word I had thought of, but it didn't seem to capture it.

Interesting about the Jesuits' use of "meditation."

There's musing (cited in the OED1 from the 14th century) and brown study (from 16th century).

(I'm not sure that Ignatius of Loyola used the word meditate (or its Spanish equivalent) though most people find his spiritual exercises to be prayers and meditations.)

There is a Latin phrase (from the OED1 entry on meditate) Musam meditari, which Milton englished as meditate the Muse, 'to meditate oneself in song or poetry'.

I was sure woolgathering must have come much later, but Encarta says this:

quote:

daydreaming: daydreaming or absent-mindedness

[Mid-16th century. Originally "gathering the bits of wool torn from sheep by bushes"]

wool·gath·er intransitive verb
wool·gath·er·er noun

Wordmatic (who does enjoy a good woolgather herself)

Thank you very much to everyone who helped! You are all amazing!