eare

Forms

ēare n (nominative plural ēaran) (weak)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā,^[1] from Proto-Germanic *auzōn (“ear”), the voiced variant (by Verner's law) of *ausōn.^[2][3][4] The same noun is found across Germanic: Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍉 (ausō), Old Norse eyra, Old Frisian āre, Old Saxon ōra and Old High German ōra.^[2][3][5]

Kroonen counts it among the Germanic neuter n-stems that name parts of the body; the forms of the other Indo-European languages point to an old s-stem with nominative *h₂óus-s, made to a verbal root *h₂eu- "to perceive".^[2] Orel sets beside it Latin auris, Lithuanian ausìs and Proto-Slavic *uxo, all meaning "ear";^[3] Köbler gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *h₂ows-, Pokorny's *ōus-.^[6][1]

Proto-Germanic /z/ merged with /r/ between vowels in West Germanic, so the Gothic /s/ and the Norse /r/ correspond to /r/ in Old English.^[4] The diphthong *au became Old English ⟨ēa⟩, where Old Frisian has ⟨ā⟩ and Old Saxon and Old High German ⟨ō⟩.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Vespasian Psalter gloss of the mid-ninth century: in Psalm 17 cleopung min in gesihðe his ineode in earan his “my cry came before him into his ears” renders the Latin “clamor meus in conspectu eius introiuit in aures eius”.^[8][9] The Pastoral Care of 890×897 says Ðurh ða earan ða word bioð onfangen “through the ears the words are received”.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller define it as the ear of a person or an animal, and Toller's Supplement adds the ear as the organ of hearing, as in the Gospel phrase “what you hear in the ear” (on eare gehyraþ, Matthew 10:27).^[11][12] In the glosses it renders Latin auris.^[6] The Chronicle annal for 1014 tells of men whose hands, ears and noses were cut off, and the word is frequent in the laws.^[12][13] A charter boundary runs to hengestes earas, which Middendorff reads either as “horse's ears” or as the name of tongues of land.^[14]

The word lived on as Middle English ere, now English ear.^[15][1]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – in earan his “into his ears” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[8][9]
• 890×897 – the ears through which words are received, in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[10][9]
• s. x ex. – in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I (Royal 7 C. xii).^[16][9]
• 11th century – a charm against a dwarf is to be sung first into the left ear, then into the right.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. the ear of a person or an animal, the outer organ.^[11][6]
2. the organ of hearing, the ear as that which hears.^[12]

Word family

• ēarwicga
• ēarhring
• ēarliprica
• ēarcoþu
• ēarplætt

Descendants

• Middle English ere (→ English ear; Scots ere)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 44
3. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 30
4. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 83
5. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 85
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. éare
7. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 172
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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. 499
11. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 232
12. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 170
13. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 59
14. ^ Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 47
15. ^ 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)
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. 407