filmen

Forms

filmen m or f or n (strong a-stem; genitive singular filmenes, nominative plural filmenas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *filmīn- (“skin, membrane”).^[1] Its only close relative is Old Frisian filmene (“skin”).^[2][3][4]

Holthausen and Köbler connect it with Old English fell (“skin, hide”) and felma (“membrane”), and Holthausen compares Ancient Greek πέλμα (pélma, “sole of the foot”).^[2][3] The former goes back to Proto-Germanic *fellą, cognate with Latin pellis (“skin”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“skin, hide”).^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in Bald's Leechbook, in a manuscript of the mid-tenth century, where a list of signs of a hardened liver names swellings on þam filmenum ge on þam holcum þære lifre “in the membranes and in the hollows of the liver”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In the medical texts the word is a membrane of the body: the thin skin that covers the spleen and the membranes of the liver and the stomachs.^[8] In Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I feollon swilce fylmene of his eagum “something like scales fell from his eyes”, and the man received his sight.^[9][7] In the glosses on Aldhelm it renders “cittis”, the thin skin between the seeds of the pomegranate.^[10][8] It also meant the foreskin, and with that sense it was masculine or neuter, otherwise feminine.^[8][2]

The word lived on as Middle English film, vilm, a membrane, now English film, whose sense “thin coating” is recorded from the 1570s.^[11][12]

Timeline

• s. x med. – on þam filmenum of the liver in Bald's Leechbook.^[6][7]
• s. x ex. – swilce fylmene falling from a man's eyes in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[9][7]
• a. 1400 – Middle English vilm, the membrane of the eye, in the English Lanfranc.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. a membrane, thin skin; a scale.^[8][13]
2. the thin skin round the seeds of a fruit.^[10][8]
3. the foreskin.^[2][3][8]

Descendants

• Middle English filme (→ English film; Scots flim; Scots fillum)^[1]

Related words

• fell
• felma

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 105
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. filmen
4. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. filmene
5. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 135
6. ^ 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. 412
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. 218
9. ^ 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. 407
10. ^ a b Bierbaumer, Peter; Sauer, Hans; Klug, Helmut W.; Krischke, Ulrike, eds. (2007–), Dictionary of Old English Plant Names, Graz, oldenglish-plantnames.org, p. s.v. filmen
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 80