cirice

Forms

ċiriċe f (weak n-stem; genitive singular ċiriċan, nominative plural ċiriċan)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kirikā, which is from Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kuriakón, “the Lord's (house)”), from κύριος (kúrios, “lord”).^[1] The same word is Old Saxon kirika, Old High German kirihha or kilihha, and Old Frisian kerke or zerke.^[2] Durkin calls it the one Old English word for which most scholars accept a borrowing from Greek without Latin in between: there is no fitting donor in post-classical Latin or in Romance, and the Germanic noun is generally traced to a derivative of the Greek adjective κυριακός (kuriakós, “of the Lord”).^[2] Köbler starts from an unrecorded popular Greek feminine of the same adjective.^[3]

Kluge's view that such Greek words reached the West Germanic languages from Gothic, through a mission on the Danube, now has few followers; the Goths seem to have had no noun of this sense.^[2][4] Durkin thinks it more likely that the word was taken in through the western church, where Greek was long used, in the Roman cities of the Rhineland, probably first into proto-Frankish, and spread from there.^[4] Wiktionary's reconstruction page likewise points to Christian centres such as Trier from the fourth century.^[1]

The Germanic /i/ stands for the Greek letter ⟨υ⟩, for which Proto-Germanic had no sound of its own.^[2] In Old English both /k/ sounds were palatalised, giving the form of the headword, and the late West Saxon ⟨y⟩ of the variant ċyriċe is a common development before /r/.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in the earliest Kentish charters in English.^[5][6] In a grant of land at Stanhamstead to Christ Church, Canterbury, dated 805×810, the donors give “to Cristes cirican ðæt lond æt Stanham stede” “to Christ Church the land at Stanhamstead”; the single sheet is of the ninth century and has been held to be genuine and contemporary, though Crick thinks it was drafted and written in the 840s.^[5][7] The will of the reeve Abba, of 833×839, survives in a contemporary single sheet and leaves dues to Kristes cirican.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The word names both the Church as a body of believers and a church building.^[8] In the Pastoral Care the holy Church holds countless people in one faith as an apple holds many seeds in one rind: “sua sio halige cirice unrim folces befehð mid anfealde geleafan”.^[9][7] The Old English Bede speaks of the church in Britain and of the Roman church, and also of a church built in honour of Saint Martin east of Canterbury.^[8][7] It renders Latin “ecclesia”, and in the glosses also “synagoga”, “oratorium” and “sanctuarium”.^[8][3]

It lived on as Middle English chirche, the English word church.^[10][11] Northern English and Scots kirk shows the Norse cognate kirkja,^[12] which the MED takes to be itself from Old English.^[10]

Timeline

• 805×810 – to Cristes cirican in the grant of Stanhamstead to Christ Church, Canterbury, in a ninth-century single sheet.^[5][7]
• 833×839 – Kristes cirican in the will of Abba, in a contemporary single sheet.^[6][7]
• 890×897 – sio halige cirice “the holy Church” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[9][7]
• s. x² – cirice gehalgod “a church consecrated” in Andreas, in the Vercelli Book.^[13][14]
• 1131 – Middle English cyrce in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. the Church as a body of believers; a Christian community.^[8][3]
2. a church building.^[8]
3. (glosses) a synagogue; an oratory, a sanctuary.^[3]

Word family

• feldċiriċe
• nēahċiriċe
• tūnċiriċe
• ċiriċstede

Descendants

• Middle English chirche (→ English church)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 159
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cirice
4. ^ a b c Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 160
5. ^ 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 1188
6. ^ 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 1482
7. ^ a b c d e f g Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 188
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 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)
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 194
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. 704
14. ^ North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary), p. s.v. cirice