cild

Forms

ċild n (strong z-stem; genitive singular ċildes, nominative plural ċildru)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kilþ, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz (“womb; fetus”).^[1] Orel sets up the Proto-Germanic noun on the Old English word alone and derives from it Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 (kilþei, “womb”), the only close relative in the other old Germanic languages;^[2][3] Bosworth and Toller, correcting their first article, likewise keep only the Gothic word as a cognate.^[2][3] Etymonline adds Danish kuld (“children of one marriage”) and ċildhama (“womb”), literally “child-home”, and notes that the word has no certain cognates outside Germanic.^[4]

Köbler traces the Germanic word to Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (“something round; belly, child”), an extension of Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up”), following Pokorny;^[5][1] Wiktionary gives the same root with a palatal *ǵ.^[5][1] Orel calls the word of uncertain origin.^[2]

It was at first a neuter of the small class with the plural in ⟨-ru⟩, the type of ǣġ (“egg”).^[6] Early West Saxon mostly inflects it like other neuter a-stems, with the plural ⟨ċild⟩, but the Pastoral Care has the older plural ⟨ċilderu⟩.^[7] In Ælfric and later texts the plurals with ⟨-r-⟩ (⟨ċildru⟩, ⟨ċildra⟩, ⟨ċildrum⟩) become commoner again.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is the will of Badanoth Beotting, made between 845 and 853 and surviving as a single sheet of the mid-ninth century that is held to be contemporary: he commends wiib & cild “wife and child” to the lord and community of Christ Church, Canterbury.^[8][9] The interlinear gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, of the same period, has of muðe cilda & milcdeondra “out of the mouth of children and sucklings” over the Latin “ex ore infantium et lactentium” of Psalm 8.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

The word names a child of any age from the unborn to the young boy or girl, and renders Latin “infans”, “puer” and “parvulus” in the glosses.^[11][5] Mid cilde bēon or wesan “to be with child” is the usual phrase for pregnancy, and in the laws the word also stands for a man's offspring as a whole.^[11][12] In the late eleventh-century annals of the Chronicle it becomes a title for a young man of high birth, as in Eadgar cild, the ætheling Edgar.^[3]

The word lived on as Middle English child, now English child, with both the infant and the unborn child among its Middle English senses.^[13][4]

Timeline

• 845×853 – wiib & cild “wife and child” in the will of Badanoth Beotting, a contemporary single sheet.^[8][9]
• s. ix med. – of muðe cilda “out of the mouth of children” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[10][9]
• 890×897 – a child running to its mother's lap, and the old plural ċilderu, in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[14][9][7]
• s. ix/x – the children slain at Bethlehem in the Parker Chronicle.^[15][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. a child, infant; also an unborn child (mid cilde “pregnant”).^[11][5]
2. (law) offspring, a man's children as a group.^[12]
3. a title given to a young man of noble birth.^[3]

Word family

• ċildhād
• ċildisċ
• ċildlīċ
• ċildhama
• ċildclāþ
• cnihtċild
• fōstorċild
• stēopċild
• wīfċild
• wǣpnedċild
• mæġdenċild
• leornungċild

Descendants

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

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 212
3. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 123
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cild
6. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 3.53
7. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.99
8. ^ a b 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 1510
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 154
12. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 34
13. ^ 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)
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. 499
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. 83