gear

Forms

ġēar n (strong a-stem; genitive singular ġēares)^[1] Anglian and Kentish ġēr;^[2] gere in the Kentish will of Abba (833×839).^[3][4] Northumbrian ger in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *jār, from Proto-Germanic *jērą (“year”).^[1] The noun is common Germanic: Gothic 𐌾𐌴𐍂 (jēr), Old Norse ár, Old Frisian jēr, Old Saxon jār and Old High German jār.^[6][7][8] Orel compares the Avestan word for “year” and Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓrā, “season”).^[7] Kroonen reconstructs a static paradigm with nominative Proto-Indo-European *ióh₁-r and genitive *iéh₁-n-s, after Schindler, because the Avestan word keeps an old r/n-stem inflection.^[6] Köbler calls the further origin unclear.^[9]

Proto-Germanic /ē/ became /ā/ in North-West Germanic, and the Proto-West Germanic vowel was fronted to ⟨ǣ⟩; in West Saxon the palatal /j/ then turned ⟨ǣ⟩ into the diphthong ⟨ēa⟩, while Mercian, Northumbrian and Kentish kept the ⟨ē⟩ of ġēr.^[2][10][11] In West Saxon the new diphthong was itself sometimes monophthongized to ⟨ē⟩ after the palatal.^[12][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the will of Abba, a reeve in Kent, of 833×839, which survives in a contemporary single sheet: whoever holds his land is to give the community at Folkestone ælce gere, “every year”, a render of malt, meal, cheese and loaves.^[3][4] The will has the Kentish spelling ger- without the West Saxon diphthong.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the year as a span of time, the word is used with a numeral in the genitive for a person's age and, in the poetry, for the good season and its yield: the Maxims say that autumn brings men gēres wæstmas, “the fruits of the year”.^[1][13] Klaeber read ōþer cōm gēar in Beowulf 1134 as “spring”.^[14] The word also names the rune for /j/.^[13][15] Its genitive plural survived as the adverb ġeāra (“formerly”).^[8] The noun lived on as Middle English yer, now year.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 833×839 – ælce gere “every year” in the will of Abba, a contemporary single sheet.^[3][4]
• s. ix/x – Þis wæs feorþes geares his rices, “this was in the fourth year of his reign”, in the Parker Chronicle.^[18][19]
• s. x/xi – ōþer cōm gēar in Beowulf.^[20][21]

Meanings

Noun

1. a year.^[18][9]
2. with a numeral in the genitive: age, years old.^[1]
3. (poetic) the good season, harvest; in Beowulf perhaps spring.^[1][14]
4. the name of the rune for /j/.^[13][15]

Word family

• ġeāra
• ġēardagas
• ġēarġemynd
• ġēarlīċ

Descendants

• Middle English yeer (→ English year; Scots year)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 150
3. ^ a b c The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1482
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. ger
6. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 273
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 206
8. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 141
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. géar
10. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 216
11. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.50
12. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.119
13. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 428
14. ^ a b Klaeber, Fr., ed. (1922), Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, Boston: D. C. Heath, p. 315
15. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 94
16. ^ 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. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
18. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 367
19. ^ 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. 83
20. ^ 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. ġēar
21. ^ 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