æspe

Forms

æspe f (weak n-stem; genitive singular æspan, nominative plural æspan)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *aspu, from Proto-Germanic *aspō (“aspen”).^[1][2] Its relatives are Old High German aspa and Old Norse espi.^[3][4] Outside Germanic the tree has related names in Baltic and Slavic, such as Latvian apse, Old Prussian abse and Proto-Slavic *osina;^[5][1] Köbler gives Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *apsā (“aspen”), Wiktionary an apparent Proto-Indo-European *Hosp- limited to northern languages, and Etymonline suggests a northern European substrate word.^[3][1][5]

Beside ⟨æspe⟩ Old English has ⟨æps⟩ and ⟨æpse⟩, with the metathesis of /sp/ to /ps/ that is mostly Late West Saxon.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a gloss in the Corpus Glossary (s. ix¹): Arbutus aespe.^[7][8] The Latin there is the strawberry tree, a gloss that the Dictionary of Old English Plant Names counts as inaccurate.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Of the Latin words it glosses only “tremulus” means a poplar;^[9] “arbutus”, “sicomorus” and “abies” are inaccurate, and the last probably comes from a confusion with sæppe “spruce”.^[9] Biggam, cited there, defines it as the aspen, the black poplar or the grey poplar, depending on local use.^[9] In Bald's Leechbook æspan rind “aspen bark” is one of the barks in a remedy, and in charter bounds it names places and marked trees.^[10][8][11]

It continued as Middle English aspe, recorded from about 1300.^[12] The English word aspen comes from the adjective or genitive form of the Old English noun.^[5]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – Arbutus aespe in the Corpus Glossary (CCCC 144).^[7][8]
• s. x med. – æspan rind “aspen bark” in Bald's Leechbook (Royal 12 D. xvii).^[10][8]
• s. xi¹ – æps læge in the bounds of a charter of 963 in a copy of the early eleventh century.^[13][8]
• ?a1300 – Middle English hesp glossing “trembler”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. the aspen, Populus tremula; perhaps also the black or grey poplar.^[9][14][3]

Word family

• æspen

Descendants

• Middle English aspe (→ English asp; English aspen)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. æspe
4. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 17
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.96
7. ^ 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. 76
8. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ a b c d e Bierbaumer, Peter; Sauer, Hans; Klug, Helmut W.; Krischke, Ulrike, eds. (2007–), Dictionary of Old English Plant Names, Graz, oldenglish-plantnames.org, p. s.v. æsp
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. 412
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 20
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1307
14. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 20