fæþm

Forms

fæþm m (nominative plural fæþmas) (strong a-stem)^[1] In prose it is also feminine, genitive fæðme.^[2] The Corpus Glossary spells it faethm and faeðm.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *faþm, from Proto-Germanic *faþmaz (“outstretched arms; embrace; fathom”).^[1] The noun is shared by Old Norse faðmr, Old Frisian fethm, Old Saxon fathmos (plural, "the two outstretched arms") and Old High German fadam, fadum.^[5][6][7]

Kroonen calls it a formation shared by Germanic and Celtic, matching Old Welsh etem and Welsh edau (“thread”); it is usually derived from the root Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread”) of Ancient Greek πετάννυμι (petánnumi, “to spread out”).^[5] Orel connects the same Welsh words and, with some difficulty, Proto-Slavic *pasmę (“bundle of thread”).^[6] Köbler gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to spread out”).^[7] The sense would have moved from spreading out the arms to an embrace or armful and then to the measure of the outstretched arms.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Corpus Glossary, a manuscript of the first half of the ninth century.^[3][4] There faethm glosses Latin “gremium” “lap”, and faeðm uel tuegen stridi “a fathom or two strides” glosses “passus”.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

In poetry the word is the embracing arms, as when angels bear a soul engla fæðmum “in the arms of angels”, and then what embraces or holds something: a lap, bosom, womb or the hold of a ship, and figuratively a grasp or power.^[2][9] Most of its records are in verse.^[4] In glosses and prose it is also the forearm and a measure of length, a cubit, and the reach of the outstretched arms, a fathom; one glossary has it for a closed fist.^[8] Köbler records it for Latin “cubitum”, “gremium”, “passus” and “sinus”.^[7]

In Middle English fadme it was a measure of about six feet and a depth in sounding; it is English fathom.^[10][11]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – faethm glossing “gremium” and faeðm glossing “passus” in the Corpus Glossary.^[3][4]
• s. x² – on flodes fæðm “into the embrace of the flood” in Andreas (Vercelli Book).^[12][4]
• s. x² – in fæmnan fæðm “into a virgin's womb”, of Christ, in Christ (Exeter Book).^[13][4][2]
• s. x/xi – to Fæder fæþmum “into the Father's arms” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][9][2]
• c. 1175 – ane feðme længre “one fathom longer” in a copy of an Old English text (Bodley 343).^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. the outstretched or embracing arms; an embrace.^[2][9]
2. what encloses something: a lap, bosom, breast, womb; the interior.^[2][7]
3. (poetic) grasp, control, power.^[9][1]
4. the forearm; as a measure, a cubit.^[8]
5. the reach of the outstretched arms, a fathom.^[8]
6. (glosses) a closed hand, fist.^[8]

Word family

• fæþmian
• sīdfæþme

Descendants

• Middle English fadme (→ English fathom)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 268
3. ^ 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. 76
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 132
6. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 95
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fæþm
8. ^ 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. 203
9. ^ a b c d 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. fæþm
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 704
13. ^ 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. 223
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