gamen

Forms

gamen n (strong a-stem; genitive singular gamenes)^[1] gomen in Beowulf and other poems.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *gaman, from Proto-Germanic *gamaną.^[1][4] The noun is common to the old Germanic languages: Old Norse gaman (“game, sport, amusement”), Old Frisian game or gome, Old Saxon gaman and Old High German gaman (“joke, joy”).^[4][5]

Its origin is not settled: Holthausen calls it of unknown origin.^[5] Orel identifies it with Proto-Slavic *gomonъ (“noise”).^[4] Köbler compares the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[6] Wiktionary mentions an analysis as Proto-Germanic *ga- and *mann-, but notes that the stress on the first syllable speaks against it, since the prefix was never stressed.^[1]

Hogg and Fulk class it among the neuter nouns that were disyllabic in origin, with a light first syllable, and keep the second vowel throughout (genitive ⟨gamenes⟩).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Pastoral Care (890×897), translating the words of Wisdom in Proverbs: Hwæt sceal ic ðonne buton hliehchan ðæs, ðonne ge to lose weorðað, & habban me ðæt to gamene “What then shall I do but laugh at it when you come to ruin, and have that as a jest for myself”, for Latin subsannabo “I shall mock”.^[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

Toller's Supplement sorts the uses into amusement and mirth, jest (to gamene habban “to make game of”), and a game or pastime, such as the tumbling of the skilled man in The Gifts of Men.^[10] The poems use it of the joy of the hall: in Beowulf gamen eft astah “the merriment rose again” after the scop's song, and in the Seafarer the speaker takes the gannet's cry to gomene in place of men's laughter.^[11][2][10] The laws forbid hæðenra leoþa and deofles gamena, “heathen songs and the devil's games”, on feast days.^[10]

As Middle English game, also written gamen and gomen, the word kept the sense “joy, pleasure, mirth”; it is now English game.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 890×897 – habban me ðæt to gamene “hold it as a jest” in the Pastoral Care.^[8][9]
• s. x² – dyde ic me to gomene in The Seafarer, in the Exeter Book.^[14][10]
• s. x/xi – gamen eft astah in the Beowulf manuscript.^[15][2]
• s. xi in. – in Ælfric's Lives of Saints.^[16][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. amusement, mirth, joy, pleasure.^[11][10][17]
2. jest;^[10][18] tō gamene habban to make game of.^[10][18]
3. a game, pastime, sport; entertainment.^[10][2]

Word family

• gamenian
• gamenlīċ
• gamenlīċe
• gamenung
• gamenwāþu
• gamenwudu
• glīggamen
• healgamen

Descendants

• Middle English gamen (→ English gammon; Middle Scots gamyn; Middle Scots gammyn)^[1]
• Middle English game (→ English game; Middle Scots gam; Middle Scots game)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. gomen
3. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 485
4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 125
5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 123
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. gamen
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 3.59
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 280
11. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 360
12. ^ 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. 223
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. 344
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. 282
17. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 146
18. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 93