Etymologically
Log in

a-

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 18:42. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

ā-[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *uʀ-, from Proto-Germanic *uz-, through an earlier ar-.[1] Its relatives are Gothic 𐌿𐍃- (us-), Old High German ar- (also ir- and ur-), modern German er-, Old Saxon ā- and Old Frisian ā-.[2][3][4] Klaeber cites Bammesberger and Orel for it and points to stressed or- as its counterpart.[2]

Campbell explains the variation by stress: prefixes had a stressed form in nouns and adjectives and an unstressed one in verbs, and this prefix is the unstressed partner of ǣ-, as in āwiellan (“to well up”) beside ǣwielm (“fountain”).[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline describes the Old English prefix as intensive, probably meaning motion away at first, and as marking the verb for a single, momentary event, as in English arise, awake and abide.[6] Holthausen glosses it with German er-, as in ārīsan (“to rise up”).[7] Liebermann notes that in the manuscripts of the laws it is added in later copies (ābīdan, ālīesan, ārǣran), dropped in others, and replaced by for-, ge- or of-.[8]

In Middle English it fell together with other prefixes reduced to a-, which had grown out of the prepositions on and of as well as the Old French preposition a.[9] The OED, quoted by Etymonline, judges that these were in the end felt as one vaguely intensive prefix.[6]

Meanings

Prefix

  1. away, off, out, from, in verbs of motion.[1][2]
  2. marking a verb as intensive or the action as a single completed event.[6][7][4]

Word family

  • ārīsan
  • āwacan
  • ābīdan
  • ālīesan
  • ārǣran
  • āwiellan

Descendants

  • Middle English a- (→ English a-)[1]
  • ǣ-
  • or-

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. ā-
  3. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 1
  4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ā- 1
  5. ^ Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 73
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 1
  8. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 1
  9. ^ 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)