burg

Forms

burg f (nominative plural byrġ) (strong consonant stem)^[1]

• With the final consonant devoiced, burh, the usual spelling in late West Saxon.^[2]
• With an inserted vowel, buruh, burug.^[3][4]
• Genitive and dative singular byriġ, beside burge; nominative plural byriġ, later burga.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“fortification, stronghold”).^[1] The noun is common to the Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐍃 (baurgs), Old Norse borg, Old Frisian burch, Old Saxon burg and Old High German burg.^[7][8][9]

Holthausen and Köbler connect it with the verb beorgan (“to protect”), Köbler with a query.^[9][8] Orel compares words for "high" and "hill" outside Germanic, among them Old Irish brí (“hill”).^[7] Etymonline reports Watkins's derivation from the root of height, whose derivatives name hills and hill forts.^[10] Hogg and Fulk refer to Motz for its relation to beorg.^[11]

It is a feminine root noun, one of a small class; the i of the old ending caused umlaut in the dative singular and the nominative plural byriġ.^[11][5] The final fricative was devoiced, burg becoming burh, and the ⟨h⟩ spelling prevails in late West Saxon.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the bounds of a charter of King Æthelwulf dated 846, which run on ða burg eastewearde ðonon on ða lytlan burg westewearde “to the east side of the fort, then to the west side of the little fort”.^[12] Its single-sheet copy is of the mid-ninth century.^[12] In the Pastoral Care (890×897) the word means towns: Christ on burgum he worhte his wundru “worked his miracles in the towns”.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller set the sense "fortified place" first: a castle, a walled town or a dwelling inside a wall or earthen rampart, as in the Chronicle's annal for 755, where the ætheling is found in the enclosure where the king lay slain.^[15][6] Klaeber starts from the homestead or manor and goes on to the stronghold and the town.^[16] Where the fortification is not in view the word is simply a town or city, rendering Latin “urbs”, “civitas” and “oppidum”, and the glosses also have it for “castellum”.^[6][8] In the laws it is a fortified seat or a town.^[17]

In place names the dative byriġ gives the ending -bury, and the fuller buruh gives borough.^[18] The noun lived on as Middle English burgh, "town, city", from which come English borough and Scots burgh.^[19][1]

Timeline

• 846 – on ða burg eastewearde in the bounds of Æthelwulf's charter.^[12]
• 890×897 – on burgum “in the towns” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[13][14]
• s. ix/x – the walled residence of the king in the annal for 755 of the Parker Chronicle.^[20][6]
• s. x/xi – burh and the dative byriġ in the Beowulf manuscript.^[21][16]
• 1123 – Middle English se burh of Lincolne in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. a fortified place: a fortress, castle or walled town.^[15][22][23]
2. a dwelling surrounded by a wall or rampart; a manor.^[6][16]
3. a town, city.^[6][8]

Word family

• burgware
• burgstede
• burgealdor
• burhġerēfa
• hēafodburg
• eardungburh
• wīnburg
• underburg

Descendants

• Middle English burgh (→ Scots burch; Scots burgh; English borough)^[1]

Related words

• beorgan
• beorg

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.60
3. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 6.37
4. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 136
5. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 3.127
6. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 111
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 63
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. burg
9. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 38
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.111
12. ^ a b c The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 298
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
15. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 134
16. ^ a b c 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. burh
17. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 28
18. ^ Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 21
19. ^ 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)
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. 83
21. ^ 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
22. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 59
23. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 52