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botm

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Pronunciation

Forms

botm m (strong a-stem; genitive singular botmes, nominative plural botmas)[1] Also bodan, glossing Latin “fundus”.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *botm, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz (“ground”).[1] The cognates are Old Frisian bodem, Old Saxon bodom, Old High German bodam and Old Norse botn (“bottom, ground”).[4][5][3] Orel notes that the dental varies between the languages without an explanation (Old English bodan beside the form with ⟨t⟩), and compares Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom”) and Latin fundus (“bottom”);[4][3] Holthausen also compares Middle Irish bond (“sole”).[4][3] Köbler and Wiktionary go back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“earth, bottom”), Pokorny 174.[6][1]

Campbell explains the ⟨t⟩ as West Saxon: after a short vowel, ⟨þm⟩ became ⟨tm⟩, as in botl and the related bytme (“keel”).[7] Ringe and Taylor, who list it among words with epenthesis, leave its preform uncertain.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first dated in Genesis A in the Junius manuscript (second half of the tenth century), where the rebel angels wæron þa befeallene fyre to botme on þa hatan hell, “had then fallen through fire to the bottom, into the hot hell”.[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The DOE Corpus has only eight occurrences, in poetry, glosses and one biblical text.[9] Bosworth and Toller quote the bottom of a ship, its keel (Latin “carina” in Ælfric's Glossary), the bottom of hell in Genesis and Christ and Satan, and the bottom of the mere in Beowulf.[10] Clark Hall adds ground, foundation and abyss.[11]

The word lived on as Middle English botme, used for the base or underside of a thing, the bed of the sea or a river, and figuratively a root cause.[12] It survives as English bottom.[13]

Timeline

  • s. x² – fyre to botme in Genesis A, Junius manuscript.[8][9]
  • s. x/xi – þa heo to botme com in the Beowulf manuscript.[14][9][15]
  • c. 1350 – Middle English botme in MED's first quotation.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. bottom, the lowest part; a ship's bottom, the keel.[10][15]
  2. ground, foundation.[11][6]
  3. an abyss.[11][6]

Descendants

  • bytme

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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. Suppl. 102
  3. ^ a b c d Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 31
  4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 61
  5. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 332
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. botm
  7. ^ Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 419
  8. ^ 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. 513
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 118
  11. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 54
  12. ^ a b 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. ^ 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
  15. ^ a b 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. botm