dæg

Forms

dæġ m (nominative plural dagas) (strong a-stem)^[1]

• Kentish: deg, in charters of 830 and 972 printed by Thorpe.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *dag, from Proto-Germanic *dagaz (“day”).^[1][3] The noun is common to the Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags), Old Norse dagr, Old Frisian dei, Old Saxon dag and Old High German tag.^[3][4][5]

Its further origin is disputed: Orel and Köbler derive it from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”) and compare Sanskrit निदाघ (nidāghá, “heat, summer”) and Lithuanian dãgas (“summer heat”);^[4][5] Wiktionary objects that the labial element would then have been lost irregularly.^[1] Kroonen sets up a root *dʰeǵʰ- (“day”) and a thematic noun *dʰoǵʰ-o-, related to the Germanic noun behind Old English dōgor (“day”).^[3] Etymonline reports Watkins's derivation from *agʰ- (“a day”), with a ⟨d-⟩ of unclear origin.^[6]

The final fricative became palatal after the front vowel: *dæɣ gave dæġ.^[7] The nominative plural is ⟨dagas⟩.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the will of Abba, a reeve in Kent, dated 833×839 and surviving as a single sheet that is held to be contemporary: Abba declares how his inheritance is to be dealt with æfter minum dæge “after my day”, that is, after his death.^[9] A charter of King Wiglaf of Mercia of 836, also in a contemporary copy, lets the grantees hæbbæn heora dæg & æfter heora dæge give the land back to the church of Worcester, “have it for their day and after their day”.^[10] Both use the word for a person's lifetime, a sense Bosworth and Toller record with on þreora monna dæg “for the lives of three men”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word names the period of twenty-four hours and the day as opposed to the night; Ælfric's Hexameron counts a day and a night together as four and twenty hours.^[11] It also marks the time of an event (sume dæge “one day”), and in the plural the days of a person's life.^[11][8] The genitive dæġes is an adverb “by day”, and tō dæġe means “today”.^[12][13] It is also the name of the rune ᛞ for d, which the Rune Poem calls Drihtnes sond “the Lord's messenger”.^[8] In glosses it renders Latin “dies” and words such as “cotidie”.^[5]

The word lived on as Middle English dai, now English day; the Middle English Dictionary has it in the Peterborough Chronicle for 1123.^[14][6]

Timeline

• 833×839 – æfter minum dæge “after my day” in the will of Abba, in a contemporary single sheet.^[9]
• 836 – hæbbæn heora dæg in Wiglaf's charter for Hanbury, in a contemporary copy.^[10]
• s. ix med. – in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[15][16]
• 890×897 – in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[17][16]
• s. x/xi – dōmes dæġ “Judgement Day” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[13][18]
• 1123 – Middle English dagas in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. a day, a period of twenty-four hours.^[11][5]
2. the day as opposed to the night, daytime.^[11]
3. a particular day, the time when something happens.^[11]
4. a person's lifetime; in the plural, the days of one's life.^[8][12]
5. the name of the rune ᛞ (d).^[8]

Word family

• dōmesdæġ
• middæġ
• tōdæġ
• dæġrēd
• dæġhwamlīċ
• dæġlang
• dæġtīd
• ġebyrddæġ
• endedæġ
• sunnandæġ
• mōnandæġ
• frīġedæġ

Descendants

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

Related words

• dōgor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 198
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 86
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 66
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dæg
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.15
8. ^ 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. 193
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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 190
11. ^ 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. 143
12. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 62
13. ^ 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. dæġ
14. ^ 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)
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. 329
16. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
17. ^ 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
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. 344