deop

Forms

dēop (comparative dēopra, superlative dēopost)^[1] Noun: dēop n., genitive singular dēopes, beside dȳp n. and a feminine dȳpe.^[2][3][4] The spelling dīop occurs for both the adjective and the noun, for example Dióp seáð in the Kentish Glosses.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *deup, from Proto-Germanic *deupaz (“deep”).^[1][7] The adjective is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌳𐌹𐌿𐍀𐍃 (diups), Old Norse djúpr, Old Frisian diāp, Old Saxon diop and Old High German tiof.^[7][8][4] Heidermanns lists it among the primary adjectives of Germanic.^[9] The noun, “depth, the deep”, is the adjective used as a neuter noun, and Köbler sets up a Proto-Germanic neuter *deupą (“depth”) for it, with parallel neuter nouns in Old Norse and Old Frisian.^[4][10]

Outside Germanic, Kroonen and Orel compare Old Irish domain (“deep”), Welsh dwfn (“deep”) and Lithuanian dubùs (“hollow, deep”), which point to a root Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ-.^[7][8] Köbler gives the root as *dʰeub- (“deep, hollow”), after Pokorny.^[4] How the Germanic adjective was formed from it is not settled: Kroonen thinks it may have been made to a strong verb, a variant of Proto-Germanic *dūbaną (“to dive”), or that it continues a pre-Germanic formation in -nó- whose consonants were changed by Kluge's law.^[7][1] The verbs dyppan (“to dip”) and dīepan (“to deepen”) belong to the same family.^[4]

Proto-Germanic /eu/ appears in Old English as ⟨ēo⟩, as in this word beside the ⟨iu⟩ of the Gothic form.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is first recorded in King Alfred's translation of the Pastoral Care, in the Hatton manuscript of 890×897: “se wisa Salomon sæde ðætte suiðe deop pol wære gewered on ðæs wisan monnes mode”, “the wise Solomon said that a very deep pool was dammed up in the mind of the wise man”.^[12][13] The noun appears in the annal for 897 of the Parker Chronicle, whose manuscript was begun about 900: “Þreo asæton on ða healfe þæs deopes ðe ða Deniscan scipu aseten wæron”, “three ran aground on the side of the deep channel where the Danish ships had run aground”.^[14][13][6]

Semantic evolution

In its literal sense the adjective describes wells, pits, water and floods: in Genesis the Flood stands fifteen ells deep over the hills.^[2] It had a wide range of figurative senses: deep wounds and deep crimes, a profound error, a “stern” judgement and the “awful” day of Doom, and a solemn oath or message, often rendering Latin “profundus”, “gravis” and “solemnis”.^[2][15] In the laws it means “heavy, severe”: deopum ceape “at a high price”, a deope friðsocne “an inviolable sanctuary”, and the adverb deope of harsh punishment and atonement.^[16][6] A homily calls an epistle swiðe deop “very deep” to hear, that is hard to understand.^[6] The noun names the deep, the abyss and the sea, chiefly in poetry and the metrical Psalms, and in a gloss it renders Latin “fretum” “strait”.^[2][6] The poet of Andreas uses it for the deep sea.^[17]

Both lived on in Middle English dep: the adjective of pits, ditches and water, and the noun of deep water, the sea and the bottom of the sea.^[18] The word is now English deep.^[19]

Timeline

• 890×897 – suiðe deop pol “a very deep pool” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[12][13]
• s. ix/x – the noun, þæs deopes “of the deep channel”, in the annal for 897 of the Parker Chronicle.^[14][13]
• s. x² – in the poems of the Exeter Book, the Vercelli Book and the Junius manuscript.^{[20][21][22][13]}
• s. x/xi – in Beowulf, lines 509, 1904 and 2549.^[23][24]

Meanings

Adjective

1. deep, reaching far down, of water, a well or a pit.^[2][4]
2. profound, of thought, learning or a mystery, hard to understand.^[2][15][6]
3. awful, terrible, stern, of a judgement or a day.^[2][4]
4. great, heinous, of crimes and sins.^[2][15]
5. solemn, earnest, of an oath or a message.^[2][6]
6. (law) heavy, severe, of a penalty or a price.^[16][6]

Noun

1. depth, the deep, the abyss.^[2][4]
2. the sea, deep water, a deep channel.^[6][15]

Word family

• undēop
• dēoplīce
• dȳpe

Descendants

• Middle English dep (→ English deep; Middle Scots deip)^[1]

Related words

• dyppan
• dīepan

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 201
3. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 221
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dēop
5. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 205
6. ^ 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. Suppl. 149
7. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 94
8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 71
9. ^ Heidermanns, Frank (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. 161
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 173
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
14. ^ 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. 83
15. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 63
16. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 52
17. ^ North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary), p. s.v. dēop
18. ^ 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)
19. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 223
21. ^ 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. 704
22. ^ 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. 513
23. ^ 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
24. ^ 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. dēop