dohtor

Forms

dohtor f^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *dohter, from Proto-Germanic *duhtēr (“daughter”).^[1][2] The word is shared by all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍄𐌰𐍂 (dauhtar), Old Norse dóttir, Old Frisian dochter, Old Saxon dohtar and Old High German tohter.^[2][3][4]

It is the Indo-European word for “daughter”, Proto-Indo-European *dʰugh₂tḗr, which Kroonen also finds in Ancient Greek θυγάτηρ (thugátēr) and Lithuanian duktė, and in Sanskrit, Avestan, Tocharian, Armenian and Old Church Slavonic.^[2][1] Köbler gives the same etymon with the Pokorny reference.^[3]

In Proto-Germanic the old r-stems were left only in nouns of kinship, and dohtor is one of the five that Old English kept, with brōþor, fæder, mōdor and sweostor.^[5] Its dative singular ⟨dehter⟩ has i-umlaut, caused by an ending *-i that was lost later.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, added in the middle of the ninth century: Psalm 44 has of ðæm dec gelustfulladun dohtur cyninga “from which kings' daughters have delighted thee” over the Latin “filiae regum”.^[7][8] An agreement over land at Chart in Kent, of 867×870 and surviving in a single sheet held to be contemporary, names Eadwald as the son of a brother's daughter: his modar his broðar dohtar.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

The word is the ordinary name for a daughter in every kind of text, rendering Latin filia and occasionally puella “girl”.^[10][3] Clark Hall adds the wider sense of a female descendant.^[11] The Lindisfarne gloss writes it doehter and docter in the Northumbrian of the tenth century.^[12] Toller also records dohter for Latin doctor “teacher” in the Rushworth gloss.^[13] In poetry it occurs in Beowulf, the Exeter Book and Junius 11.^[14][8]

The word lived on as Middle English doghter, now English daughter.^[1][15]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – dohtur cyninga “kings' daughters” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[7][8]
• 867×870 – his broðar dohtar “his brother's daughter” in a Kentish agreement surviving in a contemporary copy.^[9][8]
• 890×897 – in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[16][8]
• s. x/xi – in the Beowulf manuscript, seven times.^[17][14]
• s. x³/⁴ – doehter in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[18][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a daughter.^[10][3]
2. a female descendant.^[11]

Word family

• goddohtor

Descendants

• Middle English doghter (→ English daughter; Scots dochter; Scots daiter)^[1]

Related words

• brōþor
• mōdor
• sweostor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 107
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dohtor
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 74
5. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.91
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.93
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. 329
8. ^ a b c d e f 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 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 1200
10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 206
11. ^ 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. 86
12. ^ a b Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. dohter
13. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 154
14. ^ 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. dohtor
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 499
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. 344
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. 291