fæder

Forms

fæder m (nominative plural fæderas)^[1] Vespasian Psalter gloss (Mercian): feder.^[2] Lindisfarne Gospels gloss (Northumbrian): plural fadoras.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fadēr (“father”), from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr (“father”).^[1] The word is common Germanic: Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌳𐌰𐍂 (fadar), Old Norse faðir, Old Frisian feder, Old Saxon fadar and Old High German fater.^[4][5][6] Gothic records it only once, in the vocative, and usually names the father otherwise.^[5][7] It is the Indo-European word for father, the same as Latin pater, Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr) and Old Irish athir.^[5][4]

Kroonen describes it as a hysterokinetic stem in ⟨-ter-⟩, nominative *ph₂-tér, genitive *ph₂-tr-ós.^[4] The /d/ goes back to the voiced fricative that Verner's law made of the Indo-European /t/: Proto-Germanic had earlier *faþḗr, and West Germanic turned the fricative into a stop.^[1][8] Final /r/ survived the West Germanic loss of final consonants, and the unstressed vowel before it was not raised to /i/.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the mid-ninth-century gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, in the Mercian form feder: For ðon feder min & modur min forleorton mec, "For my father and my mother have forsaken me", over Latin “Quoniam pater meus et mater mea dereliquerunt me” in Psalm 26.^[11][12] The Pastoral Care of 890×897 says that ure ealdan fæderas wæron ceapes hierdas, "our forefathers were herdsmen of cattle".^[13][12]

Semantic evolution

Toller's Supplement sorts the senses in two groups.^[3] Of men the word means a father or parent, a stepfather, a forefather (mostly in the plural), with numerals a grandfather and earlier ancestors (ealda fæder, þridda fæder), a godfather, one of the Fathers of the Church, a patron and the head of a household.^[3][14] Of God it names the first person of the Trinity, the Father of Christ and the heavenly Father of men.^[3] In the laws both the begetter and God are named so.^[15] The Wanderer speaks of seeking comfort tō fæder on heofonum, from the Father in heaven.^[1]

In the singular the word is often uninflected, but the genitive fæderes and dative fædere are found beside it.^[14] It lived on as Middle English fader, recorded from the Peterborough Chronicle, now English father.^[16][7]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – feder min & modur min “my father and my mother” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[11][12]
• 890×897 – ure ealdan fæderas “our forefathers” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[13][12]
• s. x³/⁴ – Northumbrian fadoras in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[17][3]
• before 1121 – Middle English fæder in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. a father, a male parent.^[14][6]
2. a forefather, an ancestor; with an ordinal, a grandfather or earlier ancestor.^[3][14]
3. a godfather; a Father of the Church; a patron.^[3]
4. God the Father.^[3][15]

Word family

• fæderlīċ
• fæderen
• fæderlēas
• fæderēþel
• ealdfæder
• godfæder
• stēopfæder
• hēahfæder

Descendants

• Middle English fader (→ English father; Scots faither; Scots fader)^[1]

Related words

• fædera

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.88
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 196
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 121
5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 88
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fæder
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 4.17
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 4.10
10. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 3.30
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. 329
12. ^ 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
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 262
15. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 67
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ 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