etan

Forms

etan (strong class 5; third-person singular present itt, past singular ǣt, past plural ǣton)^[1] eotan in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *etan, from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”).^[1][4] The verb is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (itan), Old Norse eta, Old Frisian ita, Old Saxon etan and Old High German ezzan.^[4][5][6] The compound fretan (“to devour”) continues a Germanic form with the prefix *fra-.^[4]

It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”),^[4][6] the root of Latin edō and Ancient Greek ἔδω (édō), both “to eat”.^[5][7] The noun ǣt (“food”) belongs to the same root, with a lengthened vowel.^[8]

It is a strong verb of the fifth class, whose second and third person singular present often have ⟨i⟩ or ⟨y⟩ for ⟨e⟩.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, of the mid-ninth century, where Psalm 77 says that heaven rained bread on the people eotan “to eat”, and that ett mon the bread of angels “man ate”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb was used of taking a meal, of eating a particular food and of what is eaten habitually, as in Boethius, where men once ate the fruit of trees and herbs.^[10] The Pastoral Care has the bad servant who itt him ðonne & drincð with drunkards.^[11][3] It also meant to devour or destroy, as of a thief or of animals eating crops, and in the Chronicle for 998 the army “ate” (lived off) Hampshire and Sussex.^[10] In the glosses it renders Latin edere, comedere, manducare and prandere.^[6]

It lived on as Middle English eten, now English eat.^[12][13]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – eotan and ett in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[2][3]
• 890×897 – itt him ðonne & drincð in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[11][3]
• s. x³/⁴ – in the Old English gloss of the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[14][3]
• s. x ex. – in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[15][3]
• c. 1175 – etenn in Middle English, in the Ormulum.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. to eat, take food; to eat (something), feed on.^[9][10][6]
2. to devour, consume, destroy.^[10][16]
3. to live off, take provisions from (a district).^[10]

Word family

• fretan
• oferetan

Descendants

• Middle English eten (→ English eat; Middle Scots eit; Middle Scots eyt)^[1]

Related words

• ǣt

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 329
3. ^ a b c d e f g Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
4. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 119
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 86
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. etan
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 94
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 88
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 259
10. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 195
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. 499
12. ^ a b 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
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. 291
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 107