græs

Forms

græs n (nominative plural grasu) (strong a-stem)^[1] Also gærs, gers and gres.^[2][3][1] gers in a Kentish charter of 858 and in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *gras (“grass”), from Proto-Germanic *grasą (“plant, grass”).^[6][1] The noun is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍃 (gras), Old Norse gras, Old Frisian gers, Old Saxon gras and Old High German gras.^[7][8][6]

Köbler and Holthausen connect it with the root of grōwan “to grow” and grēne “green”, Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow, become green”).^[8][9] Wiktionary explains it as a secondary zero-grade s-stem of that root.^[1] Holthausen and Orel compare Latin grāmen (“grass”), which they derive from a form with -s-, and Orel adds Proto-Slavic *grozdъ (“cluster of grapes”).^[9][7] Watkins keeps the Latin word apart, while Boutkan takes it for the only reliable cognate and thinks of a substrate word.^[10]

Proto-West Germanic /a/ was fronted to ⟨æ⟩ in the singular, while the plural ⟨grasu⟩ kept ⟨a⟩ before the back vowel of its ending.^[11] The variant ⟨gærs⟩ shows the metathesis of r before s, which Old Frisian ⟨gers⟩ underwent independently.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in a grant of King Æthelberht of 858 for land in Kent, whose single sheet is held to be contemporary: among the rights granted is “iiii oxnum gers mid cyninges oxnum”, grazing for four oxen with the king's oxen.^[4][5][13] In the Pastoral Care, in the manuscript of 890×897, the prophet says “Ge fortrædon Godes sceapa gærs” (“You have trodden down the grass of God's sheep”).^[14][13]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller list the senses herbage and hay (glossing Latin “herba”, “gramen” and “fenum”), a herb or plant, the young blade of corn, pasture, and the grass-covered ground.^[5][2][8] The pasture sense belongs to charters and laws, which speak of common fields or gærs.^[5] In the poems it is the green grass of Genesis A.^[15]

The word lived on as Middle English gras, from both the West Saxon and the Anglian forms, now English grass.^[16][10]

Timeline

• 858 – iiii oxnum gers “grazing for four oxen” in a Kentish charter in a contemporary single sheet.^[4][13]
• 890×897 – Godes sceapa gærs in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[14][13]
• s. x² – on grene græs in Genesis A in the Junius manuscript.^[17][15]
• s. x³/⁴ – gers in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[18][5]
• c. 1000 – growende gærs in Ælfric's Hexameron.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. grass, herbage; hay.^[5][8]
2. a herb, plant.^[5][15]
3. the young blade of corn.^[5]
4. pasture, grazing.^[5]
5. grass-covered ground.^[5]

Word family

• græsgrēne
• gærstūn

Descendants

• Middle English gras (→ English grass; Scots gress; Scots gres)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 357
3. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 433
4. ^ 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 328
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 278
6. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 147
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 140
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. græs
9. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 135
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 198
12. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.94
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 486
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. ^ 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. 513
18. ^ 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