blod

Forms

blōd n (strong a-stem; genitive singular blōdes)^[1]

• Ruthwell Cross: blōdæ, perhaps an instrumental singular.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *blōd, from Proto-Germanic *blōþą (“blood”).^[1] The noun is common Germanic: Gothic 𐌱𐌻𐍉𐌸 (blōþ), Old Norse blóð, Old Frisian blōd, Old Saxon blōd and Old High German bluot.^[3][4][5]

No certain etymology outside Germanic is known.^[1] Kroonen takes it for a neuter collective made either to Proto-Germanic *blēaną (“to blow”), with an original sense “to gush”, or to Proto-Germanic *blōaną (“to bloom”), the colour of blood being the motive; he also allows a starting point in “life” from “breath”, comparing blǣd (“breath, spirit, life”).^[3] Holthausen asks whether it belongs to blōwan (“to bloom”), and Köbler compares the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to swell”).^[4][5] Wiktionary mentions the view that the word was a taboo replacement.^[1]

It is a neuter of the a-stem class.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the mid-ninth-century gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, where Wer bloda “man of blood” renders “Uirum sanguinum” in Psalm 5.^[7][8] The Pastoral Care (890×897) speaks of people who are glad or sad for no worldly cause but for ðæs blodes styringe “for the stirring of the blood”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

The word means blood and gore, and renders Latin “sanguis” and “cruor”.^[10][5] It is frequent in biblical prose, in the poetry and in the medical texts, where blōd lǣtan is to let blood.^[11][12] In the plural it can render the Hebraism “sanguines”, wer blōda “a bloodthirsty man”.^[11] Clark Hall also gives the sense “vein”.^[13] In Beowulf, where it occurs several times, on blōde means “bloody”.^[14] The Ruthwell Cross has a form blōdæ usually explained as an old instrumental, though Hogg and Fulk doubt that it can be trusted.^[2]

The word lived on as Middle English blood, now English blood.^[15]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – Wer bloda “man of blood” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[7][8]
• 890×897 – for ðæs blodes styringe in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[9][8]
• s. x med. – blood-letting in Bald's Leechbook.^[16][11]
• s. x/xi – blōd in the Beowulf manuscript.^[17][14] It is hāt “hot” there.^[10][17][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. blood, gore.^[10][5][14]
2. (medicine) blood let from the body (blōd lǣtan “to let blood”).^[11][12]
3. a vein.^[13][12]

Word family

• blōdiġ
• blōdlēas
• blōdgyte
• blōdeġian
• mōnaþblōd

Descendants

• Middle English blood (→ English blood; Scots bluid)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.17
3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 70
4. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 97
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. blōd
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.12
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. 329
8. ^ a b c d 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 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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 111
11. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 98
12. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 48
13. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 544
14. ^ 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. blōd
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ 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. 412
17. ^ 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. 344