claþian

Forms

*clāþian (third-person singular present clāþaþ, past singular clāþode, past plural clāþodon)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Old English clāþ + -ian, a weak verb made to the noun for cloth.^[1] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-West Germanic *klaiþōn (“to clothe”), itself made to *klaiþ (“cloth”).^[1] The noun goes back to Proto-Germanic *klaiþą (“cloth”), which survives in Old Frisian klāth and Old High German kleid;^[2][3] Kroonen notes that the Old Norse word for cloth was borrowed from West Germanic.^[2][3] Kroonen leaves the further origin open, finding the usual link with Old English clīþan (“to adhere, stick”) hard to square with the meaning.^[2] Köbler connects the noun with Proto-Indo-European *gleit- (“to stick, smear”).^[3]

The headword is a reconstruction: Wiktionary marks the infinitive as unattested, and the Middle English Dictionary notes that no Old English form of the verb has been found apart from a Northumbrian past participle.^[1][4] Toller's Supplement deleted the article on the simple verb and entered the participle under ġeclāþian instead.^[5][6] Beside it stood the verb clǣþan (“to clothe”), made to the same noun with a different suffix.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only record is the past participle gecladed in the Old English gloss of the Lindisfarne Gospels, added in the third quarter of the tenth century: at Mark 5:15 the healed man is seen sittende gecladed l gegerelad “sitting clothed or dressed”, over the Latin “vestitum”.^[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

Outside this single Northumbrian gloss the verb is not recorded in Old English, where clothing was usually expressed with other verbs, such as scrȳdan and ġewǣdian.^[11] The verb reappears as Middle English clothen, with the senses “to put clothes on someone” and “to dress oneself”, and the Middle English Dictionary derives it from the noun clōth; it is now English clothe.^[4][11] Etymonline dates the figurative sense “to cover as with clothing” from about 1300.^[11]

Timeline

• s. x³/⁴ – the participle gecladed “clothed” in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[8][9]
• c. 1300 – the figurative sense “to cover as with clothing” of the Middle English verb.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) to clothe, provide with clothing; recorded only in the past participle, “clothed, clad”.^[1][10]
2. (intransitive) to dress, put on clothes (inferred from the later language).^[1]

Word family

• beclāþian
• clāþung

Descendants

• Middle English clathen (→ English clothe; Scots claithe)^[1]

Related words

• clǣþan

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 290
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. clāþ
4. ^ 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)
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 127
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 304
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. clǣþan
8. ^ 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. 291
9. ^ a b 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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 380
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com