cracian

Forms

cracian (weak class 2; third-person singular present cracaþ, past singular cracode, past plural cracodon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn.^[1] Holthausen puts beside it Dutch kraken and Old High German krahhōn, and connects it with ċearcian and ċiercian.^[2] Köbler derives it from a Germanic base meaning "to crack", which he sets beside the Indo-European roots for crowing and for crying out or creaking.^[3] Wiktionary traces the Proto-West Germanic verb to Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to make a sound, cry hoarsely”), ultimately an imitation of the sound.^[1] Etymonline also takes the whole group to be probably imitative.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded only in glosses whose manuscripts the dated record leaves undated.^[5] The Harley Glossary has cracaþ, brastlaþ for Latin “crepat, i. sonat” (“it cracks, that is, it sounds”), and glosses to Aldhelm have craciendum, cearciendum for “crepante”, setting cracian and its variant side by side.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense is a loud sharp sound, glossing Latin “crepare”.^[6][7] Bosworth's dictionary also read seo eorþe eall cracode “the whole earth quaked” in the Paris Psalter;^[8][6] Toller's Supplement notes that the line has been emended to cwacode “quaked”, but keeps the reading as closer to the Latin “sonaverunt”.^[8][6]

The verb lived on as Middle English craken, used of bones, thunder and burning salt; from it comes English crack.^[9][4]

Timeline

• s. x ex. – the variant cearcian of teeth gnashing in torment in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[10][5]
• c. 1275 – Middle English crakeden of bones in Laȝamon's Brut.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. to resound, to make a sharp loud noise; to crack.^[6][7][11]

Descendants

• Middle English craken (→ English crake; English crack; Scots crak)^[1]

Related words

• ċircan
• ċearcian

Usage notes

Wiktionary treats ċearcian, ċærcian and ċiercian as variant forms of cracian.^[1] Holthausen and Köbler give them their own entries as related verbs, and Bosworth–Toller treats ċearcian “to creak, gnash” separately; it is the form used in Ælfric's Grammar and Homilies.^[12][3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 59
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cracian
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 133
7. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 74
8. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 168
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ 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. 407
11. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 58
12. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 48
13. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 119