æg

Forms

ǣġ n (nominative plural ǣġru) (strong z-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *aij, from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm.^[1][2] The word is Old Norse egg, Old Saxon ei and Old High German ei, and Crimean Gothic has the plural ⟨ada⟩.^[3][4] Orel compares Ancient Greek ᾠόν (ōión, “egg”), Armenian, Welsh wy and the Slavic words for egg.^[4]

Kroonen takes the word to continue the PIE word for egg directly, as a vṛddhi formation to the word for bird seen in Latin avis; he regards an analysis with a preposition *ō as less likely.^[3] In his view the Proto-Germanic form arose from PIE ⟨*ōuió-⟩ by loss of the glide after *ō, shortening of the pretonic vowel and doubling of the *-i- (Holtzmann's law).^[3] The West Germanic form gave the Old English one.^[2] The plural ⟨ǣġru⟩, beside the stem ⟨ǣġer-⟩ in compounds, has the ending of the old neuter s-stems.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first securely dated record is in Bald's Leechbook, of the mid-tenth century, where a salve is thickened by adding the white of an egg: “do æges þæt hwite to cucler fulne” “add a spoonful of the white of an egg”.^[6][7] The Old English Bede, whose main manuscript is dated to the early tenth or the early eleventh century, has it of a bishop who in Lent took only a little bread and an henne æg “a hen's egg” with milk and water.^[8][7][9]

Semantic evolution

Most of the occurrences are in the medical texts, which call for the white or the yolk of an egg, or for ants' eggs.^[5][9] Ælfric uses the egg to explain the Trinity, the white and the yolk being one egg, and in a homily on Luke 11:12 makes it a sign of hope.^[5] In the Martyrology the firmament surrounds sea and earth as the shell surrounds the egg.^[7]

It lived on as Middle English ei, plural eiren.^[10] In the north the Norse egg was borrowed, and the two forms competed until the northern one displaced the native word after about 1500.^[11]

Timeline

• s. x med. – æges þæt hwite “the white of an egg” in Bald's Leechbook.^[6][7]
• s. x³/⁴ – gif giuað þæt æg “if he asks for an egg” in the Lindisfarne gloss to Luke 11:12.^[12][7]
• s. x ex. – the egg as a sign of hope in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[13][5]
• s. x/xi – swa seo scell utan ymbfehð ðæt æg in the Old English Martyrology.^[14][7]
• c1230 – Middle English eairen “eggs” in the Ancrene Wisse.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. an egg, especially a hen's egg.^[5][15]

Descendants

• Middle English ey (→ English ey)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 66
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 17
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 11
5. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 11
6. ^ 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. 412
7. ^ a b c d e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ 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. 531
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 13
10. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ 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. 291
13. ^ 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. 407
14. ^ 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. 281
15. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ǣg