fell

Forms

fell n (strong a-stem; genitive singular felles)^[1]

• Also spelled fel.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fell, from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, hide”).^[1][4][5] The cognates are Old Norse fell beside fjall, Old Frisian fell, Old Saxon fel and Old High German fel;^[4][5] Gothic has the word only in the compound Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌿𐍄𐍃𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌻 (þrutsfill, “leprosy”).^[4][5]

Kroonen derives it from Proto-Indo-European *pel-nó-, since the related words in the other Indo-European languages, such as Latin pellis (“skin”), have a suffix with a nasal.^[4] He allows that it may instead come from the genitive of the noun behind filmen (“membrane”), with the ⟨m⟩ lost by dissimilation.^[4] Orel too puts it beside the Latin word and a Greek one, as formed with a nasal suffix.^[5] Wiktionary and Köbler give the root as *pel- (“skin, hide; to cover”).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in the Corpus Glossary, of the first half of the ninth century, where Latin “bitiligo” (vitiligo, a skin disease) is glossed blaecthrust fel.^[7][8] Bosworth and Toller list a compound þrust-fell.^[9] The simplex is first recorded in the Old English Orosius, in a manuscript of the first half of the tenth century: the Finns pay their tribute on deora fellum & on fugela feðerum “in the skins of animals and the feathers of birds”, and the richest pays fiftyne mearðes fell “fifteen marten skins”.^[10][8]

Semantic evolution

Toller divides the senses into human skin, as in Ælfric's rendering of Job, fel sceal for felle “skin for skin”, and the skin or hide of a beast.^[9] In the laws the owner of cattle that break hedges may take their hide and flesh, and no shield-maker may put sheepskin on a shield.^[9] It also names a garment made of skin.^[11][12] In the Lindisfarne gloss felle renders Latin “purpuratum”, which Toller explains as a confusion with pæll “purple cloth”.^[9]

The word lived on as Middle English fel, “the skin of man or beast”, now English fell “the hide of an animal”.^[13][14]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – blaecthrust fel for Latin “bitiligo” in the Corpus Glossary.^[7][8]
• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – deora fellum “the skins of animals” in the Old English Orosius.^[10][8]
• s. x² – felles ne recceð “cares nothing for the skin” in a riddle of the Exeter Book.^[15][2][8]
• c. 990 – God him worhte ða reaf of fellum “God made them garments of skins” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[16][8]
• s. x/xi – the dative plural fellum in the Beowulf manuscript.^[17][18]

Meanings

Noun

1. the skin of a person.^[9][19]
2. the skin or hide of an animal, a pelt.^[2][19]
3. a garment made of skin.^[11][12]
4. (glosses) a purple garment, by confusion with pæll.^[9]

Word family

• bōcfell
• þrustfell

Descendants

• Middle English fel (→ English fell)^[13][14]

Related words

• filmen

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 274
3. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 112
4. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 135
5. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 97
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fell
7. ^ 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. 76
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 c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 208
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. 249
11. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 763
12. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 114
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 223
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
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. 344
18. ^ 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. fell
19. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 78