dor

Forms

dor n (strong a-stem; genitive singular dores, nominative plural doru)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *dor, from Proto-Germanic *durą (“gate, door”).^[1][2] The neuter noun is shared with Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐍂 (daur), Old Saxon dor and Old High German tor.^[2][3][4]

Kroonen takes it to be the original neuter singular; its dual, “the double door”, may have been the base of the i-stem that gave Old English duru.^[2] Orel likewise sees it as a morphological variant of the stem of the i-stem noun.^[3] The root is Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer- (“door”), as in Ancient Greek θύρα (thúra) and Latin foris.^[5][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is the Old English gloss of the Lindisfarne Gospels, added in the third quarter of the tenth century: in Luke the householder tyneð þæt duro l dor “shuts the door”, where the glossator offers dor beside duru, and those outside knock on þæt dor.^[7][8] In Mark the same gloss has wið … ðæs dores “opposite the gate” of the treasury.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller define the word as a large door or gate, beside the commoner duru; it glosses Latin “ianua” and “ostium”, and in the Paris Psalter it renders “portae”.^[6][5] Clark Hall and Sweet also give the sense “pass”.^[9][10] The Durham Ritual gloss, like Lindisfarne, has duru l dor for one Latin word.^[11][8]

In Middle English dor and duru merged in Middle English dore, now English door.^[12][13]

Timeline

• s. x³/⁴ – þæt dor in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[7][8]
• s. x² (c. 970) – duru l dor in the Durham Ritual gloss.^[11][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. a large door, a gate.^[6][9][5]
2. a pass.^[9][10]

Word family

• fīfeldor
• helldor
• wealldor
• ċiriċdor

Descendants

• Middle English dore (→ English door; Middle Scots dure; Middle Scots dur)^[1]

Related words

• duru

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. 110
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 79
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 75
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dor
6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 209
7. ^ a b c 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
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 87
10. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 65
11. ^ 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. 204
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com