þicce

Forms

þicce^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *þikkwī, from Proto-Germanic *þekuz (“thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *tégus (“thick”).^[1][2] Its relatives are Old Norse þjokkr, Old Frisian thikke, Old Saxon thikki and Old High German dicki.^[3][4] Kroonen explains it as an old u-stem adjective, rebuilt as a ja-stem in Northwest Germanic, and sees in Old Irish tiug (“fat”) the only certain relative outside Germanic, a word shared by Celtic and Germanic.^[3] A link with *þaką (“roof”) he calls very doubtful, and one with a Hittite phrase for “flood” uncertain.^[3]

Ringe and Taylor derive the West Germanic form from a feminine *þikwī with the /k/ doubled before /w/.^[2] The /w/ was still there when the velars were palatalised, which explains why the word always has ⟨cc⟩ and never the palatal ⟨ċċ⟩, and Middle English ⟨kk⟩ rather than ⟨ch⟩.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is the Vespasian Psalter gloss of the mid-ninth century, where the Latin “reuelabit condensa” of Psalm 28 is glossed biwrah ða ðiccan, with the adjective used as a noun for the thickets.^[6][7] In the Old English Bede the darkness of the other world was swa ðicco “so thick” that the visionary could see nothing.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective is used of liquids, thick and viscous, as in the medical recipes boiled till swā þicce swā huniges tēar “as thick as honey”, and of solid matter, dense, as when the earth is called heavier and thicker than the other elements in the Boethius.^[9] It describes air, cloud, mist and darkness, and things set close together, a thick wood or thick hair.^[9] Köbler also gives the senses “numerous” and “frequent”.^[4] The adverb þicce means “closely, thickly”, of foes falling thick and fast in Genesis, and also “often”: hīo spræc him þicce tō “she spoke to him again and again”.^[9] It glosses Latin “densus” and “condensus”.^[4]

The word became Middle English thikke, thik, and then English thick.^[10]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – ða ðiccan “the thickets” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[6][7]
• s. x med. – thick liquids in the recipes of Bald's Leechbook.^[11][7]
• s. x med. – the earth heavier and thicker than the other elements in the Boethius.^[12][9]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – thick darkness in the Old English Bede.^[8][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. thick, viscous, of liquids.^[9]
2. dense, solid, of matter.^[9][4]
3. thick, gloomy, of air, cloud or darkness.^[9]
4. close-set, dense, of a wood, hair or a field of corn.^[9][13]
5. numerous, abundant.^[4][1]

Adverb

1. closely, thickly, densely.^[9]
2. often, again and again.^[9]

Word family

• þiclīce
• þicnes
• þiccian
• unþicce
• brīwþicce

Descendants

• Middle English thikke (→ English thick; Scots thik; Scots thicke)^[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. 49
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 537
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. þicce
5. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 214
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. 329
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. 531
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1057
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ 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
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. 296
13. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 729