cunnan

Forms

cunnan (preterite-present; third-person singular present cann, past singular cūþe, past plural cūþon)^[1] Present singular cann, in Early West Saxon and Anglian also conn.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kunnan, from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to know (how), be able”).^[1][3] It is a preterite-present verb in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (kunnan), Old Norse kunna, Old Saxon kunnan and Old High German kunnan, with Old Frisian kunna.^[3][4]

It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).^[1][4] Kroonen takes the Germanic verb to have been made to a nasal present of this root, the one seen in Lithuanian žinóti (“to know”), and explains its double ⟨nn⟩ from the root form of that present's singular.^[3] Köbler connects it with cūþ, cennan, cnāwan and cunnian.^[4]

Its present is inflected like the past of a strong verb of the third class.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A form of the verb is already in the will of Abba, dated 833×839 and surviving in a contemporary single sheet: Abba wishes his land to stay with his kin as long as there is one of them þe londes weorðe sie & land gehaldan cunne “who is worthy of land and can hold land”.^[5] The verb takes an infinitive here, “to be able”.^[6] The first text that the DOE Corpus dates by its manuscript is the Pastoral Care of 890×897, where it is used of physicians who can recognise neither the illness nor the herbs: gif hi nouðer gecnawan ne cunnan ne ða medtrymnesse ne eac ða wyrta.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give two senses: to be or become acquainted with, to know (Latin noscere, scire); and, with an infinitive, to know how to do, to be able, Latin scire and posse.^[6] The Supplement adds the construction cunnan on “to be skilled in” and the sense of knowing sexually, as in Christ 198.^[9][10] In Beowulf both uses occur, with an object or clause and with an infinitive.^[11] In the laws it means “to know, understand” and “to be able”.^[12] King Alfred's preface to the Pastoral Care uses it of knowing languages: ðý wé má geðeóda cúðon “the more languages we knew”.^[9]

The verb lived on as Middle English connen, now English can, in which the sense of ability won out, and the older sense of knowing lived on in English con.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 833×839 – land gehaldan cunne “can hold land” in the will of Abba (charter S 1482), in a contemporary single sheet.^[5]
• 890×897 – cunnan of physicians who cannot recognise the illness, in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[7][8]
• s. x² – ic ne conn þurh gemæcscipe monnes ówér “I know of no man through union” in Christ, in the Exeter Book.^[15][6]
• s. x/xi – Hérian ne cúðon “they knew not how to praise” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[16][6]
• 1123 – swa nan man hit cuðe oþer secgen in the Peterborough Chronicle, in Middle English.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. to know, be acquainted with.^[6][11]
2. (with an infinitive) to know how to; to be able, can.^[6][11]
3. (with on) to be skilled in.^[9]
4. to know sexually.^[10]

Word family

• ācunnan
• oncunnan

Descendants

• Middle English cunnen (→ English can; English con; English cun)^[1]

Related words

• cūþ
• cennan
• cnāwan
• cunnian

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.135
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 311
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cunnan
5. ^ a b 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
6. ^ 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. 174
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 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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 136
10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 761
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. cunnan
12. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 42
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ 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
16. ^ 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