eallswa

Forms

eallswā^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *allswā, a compound of *all (“all”) and *swā (“so”).^[1] In Old English it is eall (“all”) used as an intensifying adverb with swā (“so, as”).^[1][2] The same compound appears in Old Frisian alsā, Old Saxon alsō and Old High German alsō.^[3][4][5] Etymonline explains it as at first an emphatic form of the word for “so”, meaning “wholly so”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in a manuscript that can be dated is a letter of Archbishop Dunstan to King Æthelred about the estates of the see of Cornwall (981×988), which survives in a single sheet of the late tenth century that Chaplais held to be the original: it describes land lying ealswa Tamur scæt “as the Tamar runs”.^[7][8] About the same time Ælfric's first series of Catholic Homilies (written prob. 990) has Ealswa eft of wætere he gesceop fixas and fugelas “Likewise from water he then created fishes and birds”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller, with Toller's Supplement, sort the uses into an adverb and an adverbial conjunction.^[4][10] As an adverb it means “just as, just so” before an adjective or adverb (eallswā mihtig swā hē nū is “just as mighty as he now is”), and “likewise, in the same way” with a verb.^[10] As a conjunction it means “as, even as, as if”, rendering Latin “sicut” in the Gospels (Gewurþe ðē, ealswā ðu wylle “be it done to you as you wish”).^[4] In the laws it is “likewise, the same amount”, and as a conjunction “as”; in the late copy of Æthelberht's laws healf ealswa means “half as much as”.^[11] The word is common in prose and rare in verse.^[8]

In Middle English it was worn down to Middle English as from about 1200, and the fuller form survives as English also, which weakened from “wholly so” to “in addition, in the same way” and took the place of English eke.^[6]

Timeline

• 981×988 – ealswa Tamur scæt “as the Tamar runs” in Dunstan's letter to Æthelred, surviving in a contemporary single sheet.^[7][8]
• s. x ex. – “likewise” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[9][8]
• s. x/xi – in the Old English Martyrology.^[12][8]
• c. 1200 – worn down to Middle English as.^[6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. just as, just so, before an adjective or adverb.^[10][1]
2. likewise, in exactly the same way (with a verb).^[10][13]

Conjunction

1. as, even as, as if.^[4][2]
2. so, even so, also.^[4][1]

Descendants

• Middle English as (→ English as; English also)^[1]

Related words

• swā
• eall

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. eallswā
3. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. alsā
4. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 231
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ 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 1296
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 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. 407
10. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 169
11. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 59
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. 281
13. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 69