Etymologically
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beran

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Pronunciation

Forms

beran (third-person singular present bireþ, past singular bær, past plural bǣron)[1] Also beoran, in Christ and Satan.[2] Past plural West Saxon bǣron, outside West Saxon bēron.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *beran, from Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry, give birth”).[1][4] The verb is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽 (bairan), Old Norse bera, Old Frisian bera, Old Saxon beran and Old High German beran.[4][5][6]

It continues Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”), the root of Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō), Latin ferō and Old Irish biru.[5][6][7] Orel adds that this root merged with a homonymous *bʰer- “to give birth”, which would account for the sense of bearing children beside that of carrying.[5]

It is a strong verb of the fourth class, with the principal parts beran, bær, bǣron, boren; the past plural has West Saxon ⟨ǣ⟩ where the other dialects have ⟨ē⟩.[3] The ⟨ǣ⟩ of the past plural is the West Saxon and Kentish outcome of the Germanic long vowel.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Pastoral Care of Hatton 20, written 890×897: of the high priest who carries the names of the twelve patriarchs on his breastplate, the text says Ðonne birð se sacerd suiðe untællice awriten ðara fædra naman on his breostum “Then the priest bears, quite blamelessly, the fathers' names written on his breast”.[9][10] The sense is the concrete one of carrying something on the body.[11]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller group the senses under two heads: to carry, bring, bear off, offer (a sacrifice), wear and endure; and to bring forth, produce, give birth.[11] Toller's Supplement divides the first head into uses with a sense of motion, where the verb means “carry, bring”, and uses without it, where it means “support a burden, suffer, wear, bear fruit or a child”.[12] In glosses it renders Latin ferre, portare, afferre, baiulare and parere.[7][11] In Beowulf it is used of carrying arms and treasure, and with words for armour or weapons it can almost mean “go”.[13] In the laws it means carrying goods and enduring a penalty, and its past participle ġeboren “born” is common.[14] With ūp it means to bring up or open a case: Bær Godwine eorl úp his mál, in the annal for 1052.[12][15]

The verb lived on as Middle English beren, now English bear, in the senses of carrying and giving birth.[16][17]

Timeline

  • 890×897 – birð “bears” of the priest carrying the patriarchs' names, in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).[9][10]
  • s. x² – Se ðæt wicg byrþ “he whom the horse carries” in Elene, in the Vercelli Book.[18][11]
  • s. x/xi – Secgas bǽron beorhte frætwa “the men carried bright armour” in the Beowulf manuscript.[19][11]
  • s. xi in. – forms of the verb in Ælfric's Lives of Saints (Cotton Julius E. vii).[20][10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. to carry, bring, bear off; to offer (a sacrifice).[11][21]
  2. to wear (clothes, a crown, arms).[12][15]
  3. to support a burden; to endure, suffer, tolerate.[11][15]
  4. to bring forth, produce (fruit); to give birth to (a child).[11][7]
  5. (with ūp) to bring up, open (a case).[15][12]

Word family

  • āberan
  • ætberan
  • forberan
  • foreberan
  • forþberan
  • ġeberan
  • ġeboren
  • onberan
  • ōþberan
  • tōberan
  • underberan

Descendants

  • Middle English beren (→ English bear; Middle Scots bere; Middle Scots beir)[1]
  • bearm
  • bǣr
  • ġebyrd
  • byre

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 85
  3. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.58
  4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 59
  5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 41
  6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 2
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. beran
  8. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 3.24
  9. ^ 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. 499
  10. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 88
  12. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 81
  13. ^ 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. beran
  14. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 23
  15. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 44
  16. ^ 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)
  17. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  18. ^ 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. 704
  19. ^ 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
  20. ^ 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. 282
  21. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 43