bytlan

Forms

bytlan (third-person singular present bytleþ, past singular bytlede, past plural bytledon)^[1] Also bytlian (weak class 2) and byldan.^[1][2] Holthausen and Köbler head the word byldan.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *buþlijan, a verb made to the noun *buþl (“house, dwelling”), the source of Old English botl, bold.^[1] Wiktionary compares Old Frisian belda (“to endow, equip”).^[1] Holthausen and Köbler derive the verb from bylda (“builder, dweller”), a derivative of the same noun.^[3][4] Orel reconstructs the noun as Proto-Germanic *buþlan, with cognates in Old Norse ból (“farm”), Old Frisian bōdel and Old Saxon bodal (“landed property”), and derives it from the verb *ƀōw(w)anan (“to dwell”).^[5] Holthausen compares the Celtic and Lithuanian words for house and lair.^[6]

The ⟨t⟩ of the verb, as of bytla and of the noun for house, comes from the West Saxon change of þl to tl after a short vowel.^[7] Hogg and Fulk note that the preterite plural with ⟨-ed-⟩ in the Pastoral Care and the Parker Chronicle keeps a vowel before the ending, which may stand for a syllabic /l/ rather than a lack of syncope.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in King Alfred's translation of the Pastoral Care, in Hatton 20 (890×897): ða synfullan bytledon uppe on minum hrygge “the sinners built upon my back”, quoting the Psalms, followed by He sarette ðætte ða synfullan sceoldon bytlan onuppan his hrycge “he lamented that the sinners should build upon his back”.^[9][2][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb means to build, used of a town, a building or a fortification.^[11] The Parker Chronicle, in the annal for 921, says of the Danish army at Tempsford hit budon & bytledon “occupied it and built”.^[11][12][10] Ælfric uses it in the figure of the building on a foundation: Se þe bytlað of þam grundwealle.^[13][10] Among the summer duties of the geneat, he must bytlian and burh hegegian “build and fence the manor”.^[2] The spelling byldan is mainly late;^[14] Toller's Supplement cites it from charters, with the sense to build or perhaps to fence.^[14]

Most forms in byld- belong to another verb, bieldan “to encourage”, from beald “bold”: the bylde of Beowulf, Elene and The Battle of Maldon means encouraged.^[15][16][10]

The form byldan lived on as Middle English bilden, chiefly south-western until about 1350, now English build.^[17][18] Etymonline notes that the verb was rare in Old English and won out over timbran in Middle English.^[18]

Timeline

• 890×897 – bytledon, bytlan in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[9][10]
• 921 – hit budon & bytledon in the Parker Chronicle's annal for that year.^[11][12]
• s. x ex. – Se þe bytlað of þam grundwealle in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I (Royal 7 C. xii).^[13][10]
• c. 1275 – Middle English bulden “to settle, dwell” in Laȝamon's Brut.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. to build, construct (a town, house, fortification).^[11][4]
2. to build or perhaps to fence (in charters).^[14]

Word family

• ġebytlan
• ġebytlu

Descendants

• Middle English bilden (→ English build)^[1]

Related words

• botl
• bold
• bylda

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 114
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 39
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. byldan 1
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 64
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 30
7. ^ Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 419
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.96
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 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
11. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 142
12. ^ 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. 83
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. 407
14. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 113
15. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 137
16. ^ 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. byldan
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com