clingan

Forms

clingan (strong class 3; third-person singular present clingþ, past singular clang, past plural clungon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *klinganą (“to stick, cling”).^[1][2] Kroonen puts it with Middle Dutch clingen (“to cling”) and relates it to the causative Proto-Germanic *klangjan-.^[2] Holthausen also compares Middle High German, Old High German and Old Norse words for a ravine, a ball of thread and a rose hip, and the Old English verb clenġan.^[3]

Köbler derives it from a root Proto-Indo-European *gleg- (“round thing, lump”).^[4] Wiktionary instead sets it apart from the homonymous verb “to sound” and derives it from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to glue, stick together”), a weak verb that joined the third class of strong verbs.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only securely dated record is in Andreas, in the Vercelli Book of the second half of the tenth century, in a picture of winter: clang wæteres þrym ofer eastreamas, is brycgade blæce brimrade “the power of the water shrank over the river streams, ice bridged the pale sea-road”.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give “to wither, pine, shrink up” as the main sense, from Andreas and Ælfric's Grammar, where ic clinge renders Latin marcesco “I wither”; the sense “to cling, stick close” they find only in the compound beclingan.^[8] Toller's Supplement adds “to shrink together from heat or cold”.^[9] Holthausen gives “to stick fast” beside “to shrink, contract”.^[3] The verb is rare: three occurrences in the corpus.^[6]

It became Middle English clingen, which meant “to stick together, congeal” and “to adhere”;^[10][11] Etymonline says that the main sense moved in Middle English to “adhere to” something else, and it is now English cling.^[10][11]

Timeline

• s. x² – clang wæteres þrym “the water shrank”, of freezing, in Andreas, in the Vercelli Book.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. to wither, shrink, pine.^[8][7]
2. to shrink together from heat or cold.^[9]
3. to cling, stick together.^[8][3][4]

Word family

• āclingan
• beclingan
• forclingan
• healfclungen

Descendants

• Middle English clyngen (→ English cling; Middle Scots cling; Middle Scots clyng)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 293
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 52
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. clingan
5. ^ 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. 704
6. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
7. ^ a b North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary), p. s.v. clingan
8. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 159
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 128
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com