cræft

Forms

cræft m (strong a-stem; genitive singular cræftes, nominative plural cræftas)^[1] Mercian and Kentish have -creft.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kraftu, from Proto-Germanic *kraftuz (“strength, force”).^[1][4] Its cognates are Old Norse kraptr, Old Frisian kreft, Old Saxon kraft and Old High German kraft, all meaning strength or power.^[4][5]

Kroonen takes it as a tu-stem, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *krabēn-.^[4] Orel derives it from Proto-Germanic *krafjaną, and Wiktionary analyses it as that verb, “to demand”, with the suffix *-þuz.^[5][1] Köbler connects it with Proto-Indo-European *grep- (“hook; strength”) (Pokorny 388), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, wind”).^[6] Etymonline calls the further etymology uncertain.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, 890×897), in Gregory's description of teaching as the art of arts: ðonne se cræft ðæs lareowdomes bið cræft ealra cræfta, “when the craft of teaching is the craft of all crafts”.^[7][8] The same text uses it of a virtue: people think that their vices are sum gōd cræft, a good quality (Latin “virtus”).^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller begin with power and strength, bodily or of an army (On ðam gefeohte Mǽða cræft gefeól, “in that battle the power of the Medes fell”, in the Orosius), and go on to skill, art and science, a trade, a good quality or virtue, and then, in a bad sense, a cunning trick or artifice.^[10][9] The Supplement adds a machine or instrument, and deletes the sense “ship” that the dictionary had given.^[9] In Beowulf it has both strength and cunning skill, and dyrnan cræfte amounts to “secretly”.^[11] It renders Latin “ars” and “peritia”, and forms a long series of compounds for arts and skills, such as lǣċecræft and tungolcræft.^[6][1]

Etymonline traces the move from “power” to “skill, art” within Old English, by way of mental power.^[3] By late Old English this had led to “trade, handicraft”.^[3] The word continued as Middle English craft, where the senses strength and virtue are still recorded, and is now English craft.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 890×897 – cræft ealra cræfta “the craft of all crafts” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[7][8]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – noht swylcra cræfta ne cuðe “knew nothing of such arts”, said by a prisoner whose bonds would not hold, in the Old English Bede (Tanner 10).^[12][8]
• s. x² – in the Exeter Book poems The Gifts of Men and The Fortunes of Men.^[13][8]
• s. x/xi – strength and cunning skill in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. strength, power, might, of body or of a people.^[10][11]
2. skill, ability, art; knowledge, science.^[10][15]
3. a trade, handicraft, profession.^[15][6]
4. a good quality, virtue, excellence.^[15][9]
5. a cunning trick, artifice, fraud.^[9][6]
6. a machine, instrument, device.^[9]

Word family

• cræftiġ
• cræftlīċ
• cræftlēas
• cræftglēaw
• bōccræft
• handcræft
• lǣċecræft
• lēoþcræft
• sċipcræft
• tungolcræft
• wiċċecræft
• sundorcræft

Descendants

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

Related words

• cræfta
• crafian

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 300
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 220
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cræft
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 133
10. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 168
11. ^ a b c 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. cræft
12. ^ 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. 531
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. 223
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. 344
15. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 58