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An Etymological Examination of Aelfric's "Passion of Saint Sebastian, Martyr"

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An Etymological Examination of Aelfric's AN ETYMOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF AELFRIC'S "PASSION OF SAINT SEBASTIAN, MARTYR" APPROVED! Miajor Professor Minorsor^jrofesso; r /f e-s- Director of tn<S Department of English Dean 6f the Graduate School AN ETYMOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF AELFRIC'S "PASSION OF SAINT SEBASTIAN, MARTYR" THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Robert A. Henderson, B. A* Denton, Texas June, 1966 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 The Problem and Its Purpose Method of Procedure Limitations II. WORDS IN CURRENT USAGE 7 Examples of Generalization Examples of Specialization Examples of Degradation Special Examples of Semantic Change III. ARCHAIC, PROVINCIAL, AND HISTORICAL WORDS ... 26 Archaic Words Provincial Words Historical Words IV. OBSOLETE WORDS 40 V. CONCLUSION 48 Suggestions for Further Study Appendix I. "PASSION OF SAINT SEBASTIAN, MARTY# 51 II. WORDS IN CURRENT USAGE , 91 III. ARCHAIC, PROVINCIAL, AND HISTORICAL WORDS ... 100 IV. WORDS WHOSE COGNATES APPEAR NOWHERE IN .... 104 MODERN ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY 106 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Problem and Its Purpose A great deal is known about the word-stock of Mod- ern English, or the English language since about 1500. It is no problem, for example, to trace nearly any given word's etymology or to ascertain significant morpholog- ical or phonological changes. Even variations in temporal status, from current to archaic to obsolete, may be found in any of several excellent unabridged dictionaries of the language. All of these investigations, however, have one element in common: they all begin with the modern word and trace it backwards into the past. If this type of study has value, as it must for any student of the language, then to reverse the process, to examine a representative body of words from Anglo-Saxon, for example, must also have value and contain a high degree of interest. By tracing these selected words up through Modern English and denoting any significant changes in temporal, stylistic, or regional status, or whether the particular words appear directly in Modern English with the only changes being those in phonol- ogy and morphology, one should be able to come to some significant generalizations. Method of Procedure In order to sectore a representative body of words from Anglo-Saxon which would be sufficiently random and yet broad enough in scope to permit the drawing of con- clusions, one of Aelfrlc"s Homilies, the "Passion of Saint Sebastian, Martyr," was chosen.*" This choice was fortunate in several ways. The writing itself is short enough (sixteen pages) to permit a thorough study of each word contained in it, but Aelfrlc himself was the major reason for this choice. Writing around the year 1000, during the beginning of the Monastic Revival, this Bene- dictine monk is the greatest Old English source for what is known of the tenth century. He considered himself chiefly a translator, but White states that he was more than one who simply replaces words in one language for i 2 / those in another. He was, above all else, a teacher. / His zeal in his fight against heathenism and against 3 "coarse and subtle superstitions" led him to word his j sermons on the lives of the saints and his translations ^Aelfrlc, "Passion of Saint Sebastian, Martyr," Aelfric's Lives of Saints, edited by the Reverend Walter W. Skeat for the Early English Text Society (London, 1881), pp. 116-147. For the complete homily and the Mh.E. trans- lation as found in this edition, see Appendix 1. 2 Caroline Louisa White, Aelfrlc: A New Study of His Life and Writings» edited by Albert S.~CooSc (Boston, TS98), p. 84. 3Ibid. , of foreign works in terminology which would be immediately ^ i xanderstandable to the masses of people for whom he was writ- \ \ ing. This selection, then, was chosen because it is not the ] / intellectually elite production of a man using pretentious, uncommon phraseology; it is instead a collection of ordin- ary, standard Anglo-Saxon words. This homily or sermon was, then broken down into in- dividual words so that each one might be studied as a separate unit. However, the frequency of occurrence of « each particular word was carefully noted for purposes of studying possible changes in status. These words, approx- imately 740 in all, were studied with particular emphasis in the following areas; temporal status, whether the word is archaic, obsolete, or current, and if it is archaic, whether it is found currently in certain works for literary effect; stylistic status, whether the word is slang or colloquial; and regional status, whether the word is found only in certain English provincial dialects, Scottish dia- lects, or others. Concerning source materials, several excellent dic- tionaries were used. First, Holthausen's Altengllsches Etymologisches Wdrterbuch^ was used for its excellent cross- references from Old English to Modern English. Those words 4 F. Holthausen* Altenglisches Etymologlsches WiJrter- buch (Heidelberg, 1934). not covered in Holthausen were then checked in Hall's 5 Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, which proved to be excellent for its italicized Modern English equivalents of the Anglo-Saxon words. Finally, with varying degrees of sue- 6 cess, Bosworth's dictionary, Joseph Wright's The English 7 Dialect Dictionary, and Skeat's An Etymological Diction- 8 ary of the English Language were consulted for the words not found in previous investigations. Strangely enough, it was found that by doing some judicious guessing of what a word might have become in Modern English through normal sound changes many of the words were found in Web- 9 ster's Third New International Dictionary. When nearly all of the words had been traced forward to their Modern English cognates or to their provincial cognates, The Oxford English Dictionary served as a sole and invaluable guide "*John R. Clark Hall, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary for the Use of Students (New York, 1916). Joseph Bosworth, Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, edited by T. Northcote Toller (LondSn, 189^. ^Joseph Wright- editor, The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols. (London, 1896). 8 Rev. Walter W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of The English Language (Oxford, 1910)". g Philip B. Gove, chief editor, Webster's Third New Internationa1 Dictionary (Springfield, 1961). ^^Henry Bradley, W. A. Craigie, James A. H. Murray, and C. T. Onions, editors. The Oxford English Dictionary, 12 vols. (Oxford, 1961). in ascertaining more specific information about each individual word. From this wealth of information, finally, this study has been formulated. Three major divisions have been drawn: (1) Archaic, Provincial, and Historical, (2) Obsolete, and (3) Modern. A representative body of words from each group will be analyzed, and conclusions will be made at the terminus of each chapter; these conclusions shall be then re-examined and re-analyzed at the end of this study. Of course, it must be understood that not all of the 740 words would fit nicely into one of three categories. Several were found to appear nowhere in Modern English, either as current, archaic, or obsolete; nor could they be found in any provincial dialects. Therefore, these words have not been examined in detail but have instead been included in Appendix IV. Limitations Of course, to have any far-reaching significance, an etymological investigation must have a broader and more diverse background than that from which this study is drawn. The limitations of studying one short work by one author, however representative his vocabulary may be, are obvious. Also, the fact that only one specific expanse of time is considered places certain restrictions upon the value of such a study. Nevertheless, it is felt that, beyond a 6 certain interest which this investigation may hold for linguists, several worthy conclusions may be reached, and more specific direction may be imparted to other, more expansive, studies of this type to follow. Finally, in pursuing a study of linguistics rather than attempting to answer a purely literary question or to prove a purely literary point, one is open to the charge of turning out "hack work," or research for the sake of research. It appears, however, that a basic love of the language and a strong curiosity to see where our modern vocabulary comes from and why it is in its present state, linguistically speaking, are reasons enough for any close examination of language as language and not merely as a vehicle for thought. CHAPTER II WORDS IN CURRENT USAGE In any discussion of the vocabulary of Modern Eng- lish, it must be noted that the word-stock is composed of three distinct types of wordsj those derived from Old English, those borrowed from any other language, and those which have been made up at any given time from materials already in the language. These types, however, are not separate and distinct, because even in Old English words were borrowed from other languages or were formed by combination. Since this study is concerned with the ele- ment of Old English in Modern English, therefore, any word appearing in Aelfric's sermon will be treated as a part of the Old English word-stock, no matter what the original source may have been. Of the approximately 740 words studied, regardless of frequency of occurrence, those which are found in cur- rent use in Modern English number 425, or 60 per cent of the total. At first glance, this figure might appear to be reversible; in other words, one might suspect the Modern English vocabulary to be 60 per cent Old English. This assumption is, however, incorrect because of the tre- mendous borrowing that has taken place in English. Up 8 until the Norman Conquest, Old English had remained rel- atively stable.
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