-ere
Pronunciation
- /e.re/[1]
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
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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 150
- ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. -ārius
- ^ 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
- ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 114
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
- ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 258
- ^ a b Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. -ere
- ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ 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
- ^ 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