benc

Forms

benċ f (strong i-stem; genitive singular benċe, nominative plural benċe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”).^[1][2] The same noun is Old Norse bekkr, Old Frisian bank or benk, Old Saxon bank and Old High German banc.^[3][4] Kroonen notes that it is usually connected with *bankan- (“slope, cliff”), perhaps through a sense “raised place”;^[3] Köbler compares the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to bend, arch”),^[5] which Wiktionary's reconstruction page also gives.^[1]

In the prehistory of Old English the /a/ was nasalised before the nasal, the following /k/ palatalised before the /i/ of the ending, and i-umlaut then gave ⟨e⟩: *bankiz > *bąnċi > *bænċi > *bænċ > benċ.^[6][2] The Old Frisian pair ⟨bank⟩ and ⟨benk⟩ shows the forms without and with umlaut.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in the Beowulf manuscript, written about 1000: when the Geats reach Heorot they set down their shields against the wall and bugon þa to bence “then sat down on the bench”.^[7][8][9] The same manuscript has it in Judith, where deep bowls were carried æfter bencum “along the benches”.^[10][7]

Semantic evolution

Old English uses the word above all of the benches of the hall: in Beowulf a bench is cleared for the guests in the beer-hall, and in The Battle of Maldon the warriors recall the boasts they made on bence.^[10] It is a word of the poems, which have it in compounds for the hall bench, ealu- and medubenc.^[9][11] Klaeber records the suggestion that in Beowulf it may name something other than a bench, perhaps a part of the hall.^[9] Bosworth and Toller give Latin “scamnum” as its equivalent,^[11] and in the glossaries it renders “sponda”.^[10]

It lived on as southern Middle English bench, the English word bench.^[12][13] The northern benk or bink is probably the Norse cognate bekkr borrowed, beside the native southern form.^[14][12]

Timeline

• s. x/xi – bugon þa to bence in the Beowulf manuscript, Cotton Vitellius A. xv.^[7][8]
• s. x/xi – æfter bencum in Judith, in the same manuscript.^[7][10]
• c1175 – Middle English bennkess in the Ormulum.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a bench, a long seat, especially in a hall.^[11][9]

Word family

• ealubenċ
• medubenċ

Descendants

• Middle English benk (→ English bench; Scots bink; Scots benk)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 287
3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 51
4. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 36
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. benc
6. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 208
7. ^ a b c d 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. 344
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 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. benċ
10. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 78
11. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 83
12. ^ a b c 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. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 194