When Ælfric (there is no reason to assume that the statement is not his) describes DTA in the preamble in G as a cwyde rather than a spell, it is not easy on linguistic grounds to define the distinction he is making between the two terms, since their range of meanings overlaps. Cwyde is relatively common in Ælfric's early works, occurring about forty times in the Catholic Homilies, generally in the sense of ‘saying’, ‘discourse’, ‘narrative’. Pinning down the precise meaning is difficult in some cases, as at the end of CH I. 1 (294–5): Men ða leofestan. smeagað þysne cwyde: 7 mid micelre gymene forbugað unrihtwisnesse. It is unclear here whether the cwyde to which Ælfric is referring is the whole of this lengthy homily, or the immediately preceding discourse on the last days. On occasions, however, he clearly uses the word to mean specifically ‘homily’, as in CH II. 34, 266–7: Ne mage we awritan ealle his wundra on ðisum scortan cwyde. mid cuðum gereorde, and in a later work, the Libellus de ueteri testamento et novo: Iob wæs gehaten sum heah Godes þegen on þam lande Chus […] be þam ic awende on Englisc sumne cwide iu.

Spell, on the other hand, is rare in Ælfric's early writings, occurring only twice in the Catholic Homilies. The first is an authorial footnote at the end of CH I. 14, 220, on the so-called ‘silent days’ just before Easter, where spell clearly refers to preaching: Ciriclice þeawas forbeodað to secgenne ænig spell on ðam ðrim swigdagum. The second is at CH II. 19, 43–4, where it refers to a saying of Jesus: Ure drihten sæde. on ðisum soðum spelle. se ðe me ne lufað. ne hylt he mine word.

A clear use of spell to mean ‘homily’ is in the opening lines of the English preface to the Excerptiones:

A more ambiguous use occurs in the opening lines of the Hexameron: