bridd

Forms

bridd m (strong a-stem; genitive singular briddes, nominative plural briddas)^[1]

Etymology

The word has no known etymology: Holthausen and Köbler call its origin unknown.^[2][3] Wiktionary notes that it has no cognates in the other Germanic languages, and that, as Liberman notes, many proposals have been made and rejected.^[1]

Wiktionary mentions one formal possibility: a form Proto-West Germanic *bridi from Proto-Germanic *bridjaz, a derivative of the word for a board, which survives as Old English bred (“board, plank”); the young bird would then have been named as one that can sit on a perch but not yet fly.^[1] It treats this as unproven.^[1]

The word is a ja-stem, declined like secg.^[4] The spelling ⟨birdas⟩ of the Northumbrian gospel glosses shows the metathesis of ⟨r⟩ that later gave English bird.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is the Corpus Glossary, of the first half of the ninth century, which glosses Latin “pullus” “young animal, chick” with brid.^[7][8] The Vespasian Psalter gloss of the mid-ninth century follows with turtur nest hwer gisetteð briddas his, “the turtle-dove (has found) a nest where she may lay her young”, over Latin “pullos” in Psalm 83.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word means the young of any bird, and in the glosses it renders Latin “pullus”.^[10][3] The Pastoral Care uses it of fledglings that try to fly before their feathers are grown, Bald's Leechbook prescribes young swallows and young doves, and the Phoenix speaks of an eagle's young.^[11][10] In Ælfric's Colloquy the fowler takes young hawks in autumn to tame them.^[11] A glossary sets it beside ċicen “chicken”.^[11][12]

The general Old English word for a bird was fugol;^[1] Wiktionary contrasts the two.^[1] The word lived on as Middle English brid, now English bird.^[1][12]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – brid for Latin “pullus” in the Corpus Glossary.^[7][8]
• s. ix med. – briddas his “her young” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[9][8]
• 890×897 – fugla briddas “the young of birds” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[13][8]
• s. x med. – young swallows and doves in Bald's Leechbook.^[14][10]
• s. x² – earnes brid “an eagle's young” in the Phoenix of the Exeter Book.^[15][10]
• s. x³/⁴ – birdas, with metathesis, in the Lindisfarne gloss of Luke.^[16][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. the young of a bird, a nestling or fledgling.^[10][2][3]
2. a chicken.^[12][17]

Descendants

• Middle English brid (→ English bird; Scots byrd; Scots bird)^[1]

Related words

• fugol

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 34
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. bridd
4. ^ Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 578
5. ^ Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 459
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 102
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. 76
8. ^ a b c d e f 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. 329
10. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 125
11. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 106
12. ^ 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. 57
13. ^ 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
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. 412
15. ^ 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. 223
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. 291
17. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 50