eac

Forms

ēac^[1] Anglian ēc, with the diphthong smoothed before the velar; the early glossaries also have ǣc.^[2] ec in the Vespasian Psalter gloss and in Beowulf line 3131.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *auk, from Proto-Germanic *auk (“also, furthermore”).^[1][5] The word is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌺 (auk, “but, also, furthermore”), Old Norse auk (“also”), Old Frisian āk, Old Saxon ōk and Old High German ouh.^[6][7]

Orel, who writes the Proto-Germanic form *auke, takes it as identical with Ancient Greek αὖγε (aûge, “again”), a compound of the particle αὖ (aû, “again”) with an emphatic particle.^[6] Holthausen also compares Latin autem (“but”) and aut (“or”), and asks whether the word belongs instead with ēaca (“increase, addition”).^[7] Köbler likewise connects it, with a query in his Germanic dictionary, with the root of words for increasing, Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg- (“to increase”).^[8][5]

Proto-Germanic /au/ appears as ⟨ēa⟩ in West Saxon, while in Anglian the diphthong was smoothed before the following velar, which gives the ⟨ǣ⟩ of the early glossaries and the later ⟨ē⟩.^[2]

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, in its Anglian form: Psalm 8 has all ðu underdeodes under fotum his scep & oxan all ec ðon & netenu feldes “you have put all things under his feet, sheep and oxen, and moreover the beasts of the field”, where ec ðon renders the Latin “insuper”.^[9][4]

Semantic evolution

Its main use is as an adverb or conjunction that adds something to what has gone before, “also, likewise, moreover”, often after the word it adds (Klaeber calls it postpositive), as in folmum areahtum and fystum eac “with outstretched palms and with fists also”.^[10][3] It forms the pairs eac swilce “also, likewise” and hwæþre eac “nevertheless”, and ge … ge eac “both … and also”.^[10] In glosses it renders Latin “etiam”, “quoque”, “insuper” and even “et”.^[8] With the dative it is a preposition, “with, besides”: sixte eac feowertigum, the sixth with forty, is “the forty-sixth” in the Old English Bede, and eac þǣm or eac þon means “besides, moreover”.^[10][11][12]

The word lived on as Middle English ek, later the archaic English adverb eke.^[1][3]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – all ec ðon & netenu feldes “and moreover the beasts of the field” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[9][4]
• 871×899 – & ec swylce minum megum “and likewise to my kinsmen” in the will of Ealdorman Alfred, an original single sheet of the later ninth century.^[13][4]
• s. x/xi – eac in five places and ec once in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][3]

Meanings

Adverb, conjunction

1. also, likewise, moreover; and.^[10][3]
2. in eac swilce, swilce eac: also, even so; as if.^[10]
3. in eac hwæþre, hwæþre eac: nevertheless.^[10]
4. (after a negative) either.^[1]

Preposition

1. with the dative: with, in addition to, besides.^[10][11]
2. in eac þǣm, eac þon: besides, furthermore.^[11][12]

Descendants

• Middle English ek (→ English eek; English eke; Scots eik)^[1]

Related words

• ēaca
• ēacen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.99
3. ^ a b c d e 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. ēac
4. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 29
7. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 82
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ēac
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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. 223
11. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 163
12. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 57
13. ^ 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 1508
14. ^ 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