-ere

Forms

-ere (strong ja-stem)^[1]

Etymology

The suffix is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *-ārī, from Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz.^[1][2] Its West Germanic cognates are Old Frisian -ere, Old Saxon -eri and Old High German -āri.^[2][1]

It is usually held to come from Latin -ārius, the Latin suffix of nouns for a dealer in something.^[1][3][4] Durkin counts it among the possible loans of the continental period: probably from Latin, and if so borrowed very early.^[5] Wiktionary also reports Gąsiorowski's view that the Proto-Germanic suffix is native, from an older feminine agent suffix.^[1]

Ringe and Taylor trace it through *-ǣrī to early -eri, as in tebleri (“gambler”) in the Erfurt Glossary, and then to -ere, as in teblere in the Corpus Glossary; the vowel of the ending is never syncopated.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The suffix is recorded from the oldest English glossary: the Épinal Glossary (s. vii ex. or vii/viii) glosses Latin “aleator” with teblere “gambler”.^[7][8][4]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the suffix makes masculine nouns of persons who do something or deal with something, as bōcere “scribe”, mynetere “moneyer” and sċēacere “robber”.^[6] Wiktionary notes that it was at first added only to nouns;^[1][9] Bosworth and Toller list plegere “player”, sǣdere “sower” and wrītere “writer”, which stand beside verbs.^[1][9] The Northumbrian gloss of the Lindisfarne Gospels has many such nouns, among them bōcere, fiscere and godspellere, and also some in -are.^[10]

It continued as the Middle English agent suffix -ere, now English -er, used above all with native words.^[11]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. – teblere “gambler” in the Épinal Glossary.^[7][8]
• s. ix¹ – teblere in the Corpus Glossary.^[12][4]
• s. x³/⁴ – bōcere, fiscere and godspellere in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[13][10]

Meanings

Suffix

1. forms masculine agent nouns: a person who does something, or has to do with something.^[9][1][6]

Word family

• bōcere
• cȳþere
• fiscere
• fullere
• godspellere
• hearpere
• mynetere
• plegere
• sǣdere
• sċēacere
• teblere
• wrītere

Descendants

• Middle English -ere (→ English -er; Middle Scots -ar; Middle Scots -ir)^[1]

Related words

• -estre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. 150
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. -ārius
4. ^ a b c d Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 334
5. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 114
6. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 298
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. 610
8. ^ a b 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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 258
10. ^ a b Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. -ere
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. 76
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. 291