dic

Forms

dīc masculine or feminine (genitive singular dīċes, nominative plural dīcas)^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *dīk, from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (“dam; ditch”).^[1][4] Its cognates are Old Frisian dīk (“dike”), Old Saxon dīk (“pond”) and Old High German tīh, and with another suffix Old Norse díki (“swamp”).^[4][5][6]

Its further origin is disputed.^[4][6][1] Holthausen and Köbler connect it with Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, pierce”), the root of Latin fīgō (“to fix”) and Lithuanian diegti (“to stab”).^[7][5] Kroonen derives it instead from a no-derivative of the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to form”), with Kluge's law, and relates it to Proto-Germanic *dǐgan-.^[4][1] Wiktionary sets out both views, the first implying an original "something dug", the second "something built".^[4][1] Orel calls it of unknown origin.^[6]

The final /k/ was palatalised after /i/, but not before a back vowel, so that the paradigm had ⟨dīċ⟩ and ⟨dīċes⟩ beside ⟨dīcas⟩.^[3] The word lived on as Middle English dich and dike, which became English ditch and dyke.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the bounds of a charter of 811 in which King Coenwulf of Mercia grants land in Kent to Archbishop Wulfred: swa andlang dices west on burhrode “so along the ditch west to the fort road”.^[9] The single sheet is held to be the original.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth's dictionary set apart a masculine dīc, the bank thrown up from a ditch, and a feminine dīc, the trench itself;^[10][2] Toller's Supplement takes them as one word, masculine and feminine, meaning an excavation, ditch or pit, and also an earthwork with its trench.^[10][2] Most records are in charter bounds, where the ditches mark the boundary.^[2][11] The Chronicle has a dīc dug by Severus across Britain and the ditches of the annal for 905, which Toller takes as the Devil's Dyke; the Orosius has the great ditch round Babylon.^[2][10] In glosses it renders Latin “fossa” and “vallum”.^[5]

Etymonline notes that the word first meant an excavation and was applied in Middle English to the bank of earth thrown up in digging.^[8]

Timeline

• 811 – andlang dices in the bounds of Coenwulf's charter.^[9]
• s. ix/x – betwuh dicum & Wusan “between the dikes and the Ouse” in the Parker Chronicle, annal 905.^[12][11]
• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – the ditch round Babylon in the Old English Orosius.^[13][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. a ditch, trench or pit; a channel for water.^[10][2]
2. a dike, an earthwork with its trench.^[2][5]

Word family

• mǣrdīc
• mearcdīc
• wealldīc
• fæstendīc
• mylendīc

Descendants

• Middle English dich (→ English ditch; English dyke; Scots dyke)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 151
3. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.16
4. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 95
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dīc
6. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 72
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 72
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c 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 168
10. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 203
11. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
12. ^ 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
13. ^ 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. 249