cyning

Forms

cyning m (strong a-stem; genitive singular cyninges, nominative plural cyningas)^[1]

• Contracted cyng, cing;^[2][3] cynig and cyneg.^[2][3]
• Northumbrian cynig in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kuning, from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz (“headman, king”).^[1][5] The same word is Old Norse konungr, Old Frisian kening, Old Saxon kuning and Old High German kuning;^[6][7][8] Ringe and Taylor note that the Norse form is clearly the same word though its shape has diverged.^[6][7][8] The Germanic word was borrowed early into Finnish as kuningas (“king”).^[5]

Kroonen explains it as a Germanic formation with the suffix Proto-Germanic *-inga-, which makes nouns for persons, probably to Proto-Germanic *kunją (“clan”).^[6] Orel derives it from Proto-Germanic *kuniz.^[7] For Ringe and Taylor it first meant the leader of the clan.^[8] Bosworth and Toller analyse it as cynn “people” with -ing “descended from”.^[2] Köbler takes the root to be Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”), and Etymonline calls the origin uncertain.^[9][10]

The ⟨y⟩ is the i-umlaut of Germanic /u/.^[11] The runic spelling ⟨kyninc⟩ on the Ruthwell Cross, with the rune for palatal ⟨ċ⟩ at the end, may point to palatalisation of the final consonant, but Ringe and Taylor think the evidence too thin to be sure.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in a dated manuscript is a Mercian charter of 844×845: Ego Berchtwulf cyning sile Forðrede minum ðegne nigen higida lond in Wudotune “I, King Berhtwulf, give my thegn Forthred nine hides of land at Wotton”.^[13][14] Its single sheet is of the mid-ninth century;^[13] Gelling thought it may be the original, O'Donovan perhaps a slightly later copy.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Besides a king of a people, the word could be used of an emperor, and of God or Christ as the heavenly king.^[2][15] Bosworth and Toller note that kings are named as kings of peoples, of the West Saxons or the Mercians, not of lands.^[2] In glosses it renders Latin “rex”, and also “princeps”, “dux”, “consul” and “tetrarches”.^[9] It is very frequent in the poetry, where Klaeber lists many compounds such as folccyning, þēodcyning and wuldurcyning.^[16]

Beside the full form Old English had the contracted cyng and cing, the source of the English word.^[2][10] It lived on as Middle English king, now English king;^[17] MED notes Middle English forms whose vowel comes from Old Norse.^[17]

Timeline

• 844×845 – Berchtwulf cyning in a Mercian charter, in a single sheet of the mid-ninth century.^[13][14]
• s. ix med. – in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[18][14]
• 890×897 – in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[19][14]
• s. x/xi – cyning and kyning in the Beowulf manuscript.^[20][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. a king, ruler of a people.^[2][9][21]
2. an emperor.^[2]
3. God or Christ, the heavenly king.^[2][15]

Word family

• undercyning
• beorncyning
• eorðcyning
• folccyning
• gūðcyning
• hēahcyning
• lēodcyning
• sǣcyning
• þēodcyning
• woroldcyning
• wuldurcyning

Descendants

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

Related words

• cynn
• cynedōm

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 185
3. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 141
4. ^ Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. cynig
5. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 45
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 311
7. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 224
8. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 129
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cyning
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 222
12. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 211
13. ^ a b c d 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 204
14. ^ 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
15. ^ 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. 79
16. ^ a b 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. cyning
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ 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. 329
19. ^ 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
20. ^ 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
21. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 61