æfen

Forms

ǣfen m (strong a-stem; genitive singular ǣfennes, nominative plural ǣfennas)^[1]

• Northumbrian: ēfern in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *āban, a byform or derivative of *ābanþ.^[1] Ringe and Taylor count *āban- among the West Germanic words that are isolated etymologically;^[3] Old English extended it with ⟨-j-⟩ (genitive ⟨ǣfennes⟩), while Old Frisian ēvend, Old Saxon āband and Old High German āband were extended with ⟨-d-⟩.^[3] Its cognates include Old Dutch āvont and, with a different root form, Old Norse aptann.^[4]

Kroonen calls the noun Proto-Germanic *ēbanþ- problematic both in etymology and formation; he compares the suffix of Hittite išpant- (“night”) and, following Hamp, reconstructs an accentually mobile consonant stem, which would account for the different root of the Norse word.^[4] Orel derives it from Proto-Germanic *aftanē with taboo distortions.^[5] Köbler, after Pokorny, sees in it Proto-Indo-European *ēponto (“the back part of the day”), from *epi (“near, behind”).^[6]

As an old ja-stem with the suffix ⟨-enn⟩ it shows a geminate in the inflected forms, and it is often neuter as well as masculine.^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the mid-ninth-century gloss of the Vespasian Psalter: Æt efenne wunað wop & to margentide blis renders “Ad uesperum demorabitur fletus, et ad matutinatum laetitia” of Psalm 29, “weeping lasts at evening, and joy in the morning”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The word means evening, and in the glosses renders Latin “vesper” and “vespera”.^[12][6] It also names the eve of a feast, the evening or day before it, as in þone hālgan ǣfen Pentecosten “the holy eve of Pentecost” in the Chronicle, and in compounds such as Ēasterǣfen and Sunnanǣfen.^[2][13] Wiktionary also gives the church office of vespers.^[1] In the poetry it marks the close of the day, as syþðan ǣfen cwōm “after evening came” in Beowulf.^[9] It is one of the time words that often take an endingless dative in phrases such as on ǣfen.^[14]

The word lived on as Middle English even, with the clipped form Middle English eve, now English eve and the poetic English even.^[15]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – Æt efenne wunað wop in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[10][11]
• s. ix/x – in þone halgan æfen Pentecosten “on the holy eve of Pentecost” in the Parker Chronicle, annal 626.^[16][11]
• s. x/xi – syþðan æfen cwom in the Beowulf manuscript.^[17][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. evening, eventide.^[12][6]
2. the eve of a feast, the evening or day before it.^[2][13]
3. (Christianity) vespers.^[1]

Word family

• ǣfensteorra
• ǣfensang
• ǣfentīd
• ǣfentīma
• ǣfenlǣcan
• ǣfnung
• ǣfenmete
• ǣfenlēoht
• ǣfengereord
• ġiestranǣfen
• mōnanǣfen

Descendants

• Middle English even (→ English even)^[1]
• Middle English eve (→ English eve)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 10
3. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 126
4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 113
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 2
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ǣfen
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.21
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 3.62
9. ^ a b c Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. ǣfen
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
11. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
12. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 9
13. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 5
14. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.18
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 83
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344