Conceivable clues to twelve Old English words

Herbert Dean Meritt

doi:10.1017/S0263675100000156

Conceivable clues to twelve Old English words

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 September 2008

Herbert Dean Meritt

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Herbert Dean Meritt: Affiliation:
Stanford, California

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In Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 383, on pp. 102–7, there are instructions for the tasks of a reeve, followed by several long lists of necessary tools and appurtenances. The closing list is preceded by mention of some particular kinds of craftsmen – mylewerde, sutere, leadgotan, contains some sixty terms of tools and equipment and concludes with the entries sapbox, camb, yrfebinne, fodderhec, fyrgebeorh, meluhudern, ælhyde, ofnrace, mexscofle. From the entry ælhyde BT Suppl enters with a query , ‘an eel-skin’, and Hall enters ǣlhyd queryingly defined as ‘eel receptacle’, ‘eel-skin’. Perhaps ælhyde is not a compound and perhaps æl does not mean ‘eel’.

Type: Research Article
Information: Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 1 , January 1972 , pp. 193 - 205

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263675100000156 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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^{Page 193 note 1} Ptd Liebermann, F., Anglia 9 (1886), 259–65Google Scholar and Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen (Halle, 1903–1916; repr. Aalen, 1960) 1, 453–5.Google Scholar

^{Page 193 note 2} The punctuation is as printed by Liebermann.

^{Page 193 note 3} The following abbreviations are used: BT = Bosworth, J. and Toller, T. N., An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford, 1898)Google Scholar; BT Suppl = T. N. Toller, Supplement to BT (Oxford, 1921); Hall = Hall, J. R. Clark, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed. with suppl. by Meritt, H. D. (Cambridge, 1960)Google Scholar; MED = Middle English Dictionary, ed. H. Kurath and S. M. Kuhn (Ann Arbor, 1952–)Google Scholar; Napier = Old English Glosses, ed. Napier, A. S. (Oxford, 1900)Google Scholar; WW = Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, ed. Wright, T. and Wülcker, R. P. (London, 1884)Google Scholar.

^{Page 193 note 4} No mark over y. For the definition ‘eel-skin’ one is referred to BT Suppl; for ‘eel receptacle’ one is referred to Liebermann, Gesetze, where the definition ‘Aalbehälter’ is given.

^{Page 193 note 5} WW, p. 97.

^{Page 193 note 6} ‘sutlers wiþ ჳhour blote hides … and alles’, cited in MED, s.v. al. Awl and hide are referred to side by side in a list in a Middle English metrical glossary, sunt ansoria, solie, sibula, cordibanumque (WW 628, 34), where sibula is glossed nalle, meaning ‘an awl’, and cordibanum is glossed corduane, which is ME cordewane, defined in MED as ‘Cordovan leather, or a skin of it’, and documented in such a context as ‘in 12 pellibus de Cordewan’.

^{Page 194 note 1} In its context ælhyde is accusative; the documented acc. s. of is .

^{Page 194 note 2} WW 355, 32.

^{Page 194 note 3} In Fact and Lore about Old English Words (Stanford, 1954), p. 26, I suggested that in bearpen might lie earpen, ‘dark’, and in aidoneæ a garbled Aἰθιοπία.Google Scholar

^{Page 194 note 4} Ed. S. Brandt in Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 27, 135–47.Google Scholar

^{Page 194 note 5} WW 338–473.

^{Page 194 note 6} ‘Quam nee aedoniae voces nec tibia possit’.

^{Page 194 note 7} WW 379, 4.

^{Page 194 note 8} ‘Nee Cylleneae fila canora lyrae’.

^{Page 194 note 9} WW 397, 29.

^{Page 194 note 10} ‘Non huc exsangues morbi non aegra senectus’.

^{Page 194 note 11} WW 427, 13–16.

^{Page 194 note 12} ‘Sed nostros montes quorum iuga celsa putantur’ (line 7); ‘Nec scelus infandum nec opum vesana cupido’ (17); ‘Et curae insomnes et violenta fames’ (20); ‘Nec cuiquam inplumem pascere cura subest’ (110).

^{Page 194 note 13} WW 438, 8–9.

^{Page 194 note 14} ‘Ter quater e vivo gurgite libat aquam’ (38); ‘Tum legit aerio sublimen vertice palmam’ (69).

^{Page 194 note 15} WW 447, 23.

^{Page 195 note 1} ‘Musica Cirrhaeis adsimulare modis’.

^{Page 195 note 2} WW 456, 8–9.

^{Page 195 note 3} ‘Adsuetum nemoris dulce cubile fugit’ (62); ‘Neu concreta noto [v.l. nothus] nubes per inania caeli’ (75).

^{Page 195 note 4} WW 462, 23.

^{Page 195 note 5} ‘Paret et obsequitur Phoebo memoranda satelles’.

^{Page 195 note 6} The Thesaurus Linguae Latinae documents the word only once elsewhere, from incerti laus Pisonis.

^{Page 195 note 7} Cf. liram hearpan, WW 437, 22.

^{Page 195 note 8} Rituale Ecclesiae Dunelmensis, ed. Thompson, A. H. and U. Lindelöf, Surtees Society 140 (1927), 47, line 19.Google Scholar

^{Page 195 note 9} See BT Suppl, s.v. bīman.

^{Page 195 note 10} The glosses in Napier are replete with instances of incompletions like trahnie for trahniende and stærbl for stærblinde. For many instances of the present participle ending -end in 2nd cl. wk vbs see Napier 1, 1003 n.

Although it has no discernible bearing on the interpretation of hearpen, some curiosity deserves mention about hæleþa stefn in the Old English Phoenix. Since stefn there reflects voces in the group aedoniae voces, one must wonder if hæleþa has anything to do with aedoniae. Perhaps the poet paid no attention to aedoniae and used a suitably alliterative word which occurs in such poetic groups as hæleþa helpend, hæleþa scyppend and hæleþa hyhtgifa. On the other hand he may have taken aedoniae, ‘nightingale-like’, to be a proper adjective like the accompanying Cirrhaeis and Cylleneae and thought that it referred to a particular race of men, hæleþa. In the Old English Genesis the Vulgate rex Sodomorum is reflected both by Sodoma aldor (2124) and hæleþa waldend (2139). Remarkably in the edition of Lactantius's Carmen in Migne, Patrologia Latina 7, the spelling is Ædoniae, capitalized.

^{Page 195 note 11} WW 456, 30.

^{Page 196 note 1} Die althochdeutschen Glossen, ed. Steinmeyer, E. and Sievers, E. (Berlin, 1879–1898) 11, 719, 50.Google Scholar

^{Page 196 note 2} WW 192, 3.

^{Page 196 note 3} Ed. Lindsay, W. M. (Oxford, 1911), XII. i. 49–50. Here badium is accusativeGoogle Scholar; the nominative badius occurs two sentences earlier.

^{Page 196 note 4} WW 416, 1. The possibility has been pointed out by Oliphant, R., The Harley Latin-Old English Glossary (The Hague, 1966), p. 23.Google Scholar He did not understand baista; nor does BT Suppl s.v. glasin.

^{Page 197 note 1} Glossaria Latina, ed. Lindsay, W. M. et al. (Paris, 1926–1931) ii, 239, 35Google Scholar PubMed: palma. χεὶρ κα ὶ βαὶς καὶ Øοῖνιξ. Granted this equivalence, one still must inquire why a glossator should use a Greek gloss in this Isidore passage, and some answer may lie in the fact that Isidore himself, in discussing palma, uses a Greek word: ‘Palma … Hanc Graeci phoenicem dicunt’ (Etymologies xvii. vii. 1), a term which could lead a glossator to its equivalent βαίς.

^{Page 197 note 2} WW 138, 10.

^{Page 197 note 3} Napier 1, 922.

^{Page 197 note 4} A now missing lemma glaucus may once have accompanied the entry badius. spadis, for at least one glossary enters ‘glaucus spadix equus qui oculos habet glauci coloris’ (Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, ed. Goetz, G. (Leipzig, 1888–1923) v, 245, 13Google Scholar). This entry also stems from Isidore.

^{Page 197 note 5} Napier 38, 2 and p. xx, no. 38.Google Scholar

^{Page 197 note 6} WW 410, 30.

^{Page 197 note 7} WW 245, 16.

^{Page 197 note 8} Etymologies, 1. xxxvii. 24.Google Scholar

^{Page 197 note 9} BT Suppl, s.v. burgrūne, compares hægtesse, which also glosses Furia and of which the part hæg is probably related to hæg, ‘enclosure’, in which case hæg- in hægtesse could be analogous to burg- in burgrune.

^{Page 198 note 1} This is followed by a remark about Furiae which is the source of the lemma Furiae in the Cleopatra Glossary.

^{Page 198 note 2} E.g. Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum vii, 48.

^{Page 198 note 3} Glossaria Latina 1, 424, 439.

^{Page 198 note 4} See BT Suppl, s.vv. beorgan and gebeorglic.

^{Page 198 note 5} See BT Suppl, s.v. gebeorgan.

^{Page 198 note 6} WW 178, 41.

^{Page 198 note 7} Napier 8, 221.

^{Page 198 note 8} Napier 7, 293. After submission of the present article my attention was called to the mention in JBAA 3rd ser. 27 (1964), 21, n. 10, that Professor Whitelock suggested that burgrune as applied to parcae might be connected with ‘to spare’, OE beorgan.

^{Page 198 note 9} The spelling cylu is that of the Junius transcript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 71) from which the WW entry was made, but on 15r of BM Add. 32246, thought to be the source of the Junius transcript, the spelling is kylu.

^{Page 198 note 10} WW 415, 29.

^{Page 198 note 11} Guttatus. pameled, ut equus, WW 587, 28.

^{Page 198 note 12} WW 117, 14, which omits vel of the transcript and BM Add. 32246.

^{Page 199 note 1} Andreas 1260 and The Phoenix 59.

^{Page 199 note 2} Somewhere a glossator seems to have been partial to this formation, for in the batch along with kylu are not only fealu, dunfalu and geolu but also the peculiar entry avidius. grinu.

^{Page 199 note 3} This spelling with k only indicates an occasional velar pronunciation of cyle, as may also the eME spelling cule (see MED, s.v. chele).

^{Page 199 note 4} WW 182, 39.

^{Page 199 note 5} On BM Add. 32246, 12r, in a glossary containing some Old English glosses, is the entry ‘dodrans est ubi deest quadrans’.

^{Page 199 note 6} The term is familiar enough to find a place in Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, s.v. dodrans.

^{Page 199 note 7} No idle assumption. The apparatus criticus of any edited Old English text is likely to contain several instances of MS d to be read as ð; there are fourteen such in The Exeter Book, ed. Krapp, G. P. and Dobbie, E. V. K., The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (1936).Google Scholar

^{Page 200 note 1} See the discussion above, p. 196.

^{Page 200 note 2} In þre fæmnan, The Blickling Homilies, ed. Morris, R., Early English Text Society o.s. 58, 63 and 73 (London, 1874–1880), p. 145, line 31.Google ScholarHere þre is nominative, the same form as accusative in cardinal numbers, in which there is often no distinction of gender. For the accusative with ārian, cf. ‘He araþ ða godan’, cited in BT, s.v. ārian.

^{Page 200 note 3} Cited in Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, s.v. dodrans, from Lex Burgundorum.

^{Page 200 note 4} Aelfrics Grammatik und Glossar, ed. Zupitza, J. (Berlin, 1880Google Scholar; repr. Berlin etc., 1966, with contr. by H. Gneuss), p. 61, n. 6.

^{Page 200 note 5} Cited in BT Suppl s.v. ge-ārian, ‘to endow, present’.

^{Page 200 note 6} Beowulf 2606–8.

^{Page 200 note 7} Cited in BT Suppl s.v. ār, ‘property’.

^{Page 200 note 8} Cited in BT Suppl s.v. ǣht, ‘a possession’.

^{Page 200 note 9} Hereditas is glossed æbt at Luke xx. 14 in the West Saxon Gospels (ed. Skeat, W. W., The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Versions (Cambridge, 1871–1887)).Google Scholar

^{Page 200 note 10} Not without some hesitation, however. The most recent editor of The Phoenix, after mentioning such interpretations as ‘eye’, ‘eyeball’, ‘das Funkeln der Augen’, states that one must admit that eaggebyrd is more likely to mean ‘eye's nature’ (The Phoenix, ed. Blake, N. F. (Manchester, 1964), p. 77)Google Scholar.

^{Page 201 note 1} See BT Suppl, s.v. gebyrd.

^{Page 201 note 2} Ingenitam.i. natam. ongeborene, Napier, 2, 360.

^{Page 201 note 3} Carmen de Ave Phoenice, ed. Brandt, line 137.

^{Page 201 note 4} The recent editor of the Harleian Glossary, R. Oliphant, notes that he does not understand the gloss forceps.

^{Page 201 note 5} See, e.g., Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum vi, 297 s.v. curia.

^{Page 201 note 6} Glossaria Latina 1, 158, 303.

^{Page 201 note 7} See BT Suppl, s.v. forespræc.

^{Page 201 note 8} WW 273, 26. The first letter of a lemma in a glossary is usually capitalized, but in a printed discussion it is customary to use lower case; the capitalization has here been kept for reasons that will appear.

^{Page 201 note 9} From 45V of the Cleopatra Glossary.

^{Page 201 note 10} The reason for this suggested comparison lies in the fact that the entry at WW 414, 8 is in a glossary that has drawn heavily from Aldhelm and the entry at WW 521, 17 (from Cleopatra A. iii, 111 r) is definitely in an Aldhelm batch. Also in a note to Grues at WW 521, 17 Wülcker stated that Grues is miswritten for caries and referred one, unenlighteningly, to the entry Cnues. eldo at WW 374, 4, from 22V of the Cleopatra Glossary.

^{Page 201 note 11} See preceding note. The entry reproduces the manuscript correctly.

^{Page 202 note 1} ‘The Minor Latin-Old English Glossaries in MS Cotton Cleopatra A. iii’ (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Stanford, 1956), p. 45Google Scholar. He noted that γῦρις is a glossary equivalent of pollis, a word glossed by Old English grytt.

^{Page 202 note 2} It is in fact provable, for the entry Grues. gryt at WW 414, 8 is in an alphabetized batch of lemmata drawn from an unalphabetized glossary like that containing the entry Grues. gryt at WW 273, 26.

^{Page 202 note 3} Aldhelmi Opera, ed. R. Ehwald, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auct. ant. 15. 3.

^{Page 202 note 4} The same determination of context applies, though less closely, to the entry Cnues. eldo in the alphabetized glossary. The lemma immediately preceding Cnues is Conglobatur, found at line 619 of the metrical De Virginitate, and the immediately following lemma is Cuderet found in line 745.

^{Page 202 note 5} Ed. Ehwald, p. 379.

^{Page 202 note 6} WW 343, 39.

^{Page 203 note 1} Ed. Ehwald, p. 379. He documents the reading frangisGoogle Scholarin Codex Gothanus I 75, eighth-century in insular script, and assigns first place to the manuscript in his edition.

^{Page 203 note 2} It glosses inlicias in Aldhelm's quotation from Cyprian: ‘tu … oculos in te iuvenum illicias’ (ed. Ehwald, p. 315, line 15).Google Scholar

^{Page 203 note 3} WW 513, 7.

^{Page 203 note 4} BT, s.v. scild III, takes the word as being used of a bird's back and suggests something like ‘shield-shaped’ or ‘shoulder-blade’. Hall, s.v. scield, queries ‘part of a bird's plumage?’.

^{Page 203 note 5} Ed. Blake, pp. 77–8.

^{Page 203 note 6} Ed. Brandt, line 130.

^{Page 203 note 7} Ibid.

^{Page 203 note 8} WW 355, 27, where the lemma is given as arta, but this is a misprinting of apta in the manuscript. It should be noted that in the edited text of the Carmen, aptata is an edited reading, but it should also be noted that in the glossary entry apta. gefeged, the lemma apta is in a small batch of lemmata the last one of which, Aidoneæ, almost surely comes from the Carmen.

^{Page 203 note 9} See BT Suppl, s.v. hnol, and Hall, s.v. hnoll.

^{Page 203 note 10} See Revised Medieval Latin Word-List, ed. Latham, R. E. (London, 1965), s.v. corona.Google Scholar

^{Page 204 note 1} Graff, E. G., Althochdeutscher Sprachschatz (Berlin, 1834–1842) vi, 439–40.Google Scholar

^{Page 204 note 2} See BT, s.v. scēada.

^{Page 204 note 3} See Promptorium Parvulorum, ed. Way, A. (London, 1843–1865)Google Scholar, s.v. schodynge.

^{Page 204 note 4} They are also etymologically related to Old English scīd, ‘shide, split of wood’.

^{Page 204 note 5} Like mild for midl in the glossary entry chamus. bridles mild on BM Add. 32246, 9V; the Junius transcript has bridles midl, whence bridles midl at WW 120, 7.

^{Page 204 note 6} See BT, s.v. hnol.

^{Page 204 note 7} E.g. ‘Ða begann se ealda incuðlice siccettan 7 mid wope wearð witodlice ofergoten’, ‘Ælfric: On the Old and New Testament’, ed. Crawford, S. J., The Old English Version of the Heptateuch etc., EETS o.s. 160 (London, 1922; repr. 1969), p. 65, line 1104 – p. 66, line 1105.Google Scholar

^{Page 204 note 8} See BT, s.v. sicettan.

^{Page 204 note 9} WW 211, 42.

^{Page 204 note 10} PL 109, col. 19.

^{Page 205 note 1} PL 167, col. 1068.

^{Page 205 note 2} WW 364, 33.

^{Page 205 note 3} It is followed by lemmata from I Regum x. 22 and xiii. 12 and II Regum vi. 19. Known sources of batches of lemmata in this glossary are detailed in ‘The Latin-Old English Glossary in MS Cotton Cleopatra A. iii’, ed. Stryker, W. G. (unpub. diss., Stanford, 1951).Google Scholar

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