grafan

Forms

grafan (third-person singular present græfþ, past singular grōf, past plural grōfon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *graban (“to dig, scrape”), from Proto-Germanic *grabaną (“to dig”).^[1][2] The Proto-Germanic strong verb is continued by Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (graban), Old Norse grafa, Old Frisian grēva, Old Saxon gravan and Old High German graban, all meaning “to dig”.^[2][3][4] Seebold gives the Old English verb the senses “to dig” and “to carve”.^[5]

Köbler and Wiktionary trace it to the root Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch, scrape”).^[4][1] Orel compares Lithuanian grėbti (“to rake”) and Slavic verbs meaning “to rake, to dig”, and Holthausen the Latvian and Old Church Slavonic verbs for “to hollow out” and “to bury”.^[3][6] Kroonen sets aside a proposed link with a Hittite verb meaning “to devour”.^[2] The noun græf (“grave, trench”) was made from the same verb.^[3]

It is one of the regular strong verbs of the sixth class.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Exeter Book, copied in the second half of the tenth century.^[8] In Christ the fire of Judgement Day græfeð grimlice, “digs fiercely”, through the tracts of the earth.^[8][9][10] The same manuscript has it in the Riddles: Ic be grunde græfe, “I dig along the ground”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give two senses: “to dig, delve, dig up”, said of the miser who dug for gold and of a grave dug in the ground, and “to engrave, carve”, where it renders Latin sculpere.^[10] In the Old English Martyrology the workmen grofen æghwylcne stan swa se casere geðohte, carved each stone as the emperor had planned it.^[11][9][12] It is rare: the corpus has only a few clear tokens, most of them in poetry.^[9]

It became Middle English graven, which also meant “to bury”.^[13] It survives as English grave “to engrave”.^[1]

Timeline

• s. x² – græfeð grimlice “digs fiercely” in Christ in the Exeter Book.^[8][9]
• s. x/xi – hy grofen æghwylcne stan “they carved every stone” in the Old English Martyrology.^[11][9]
• c. 1300 – Middle English graven “to bury” in Havelok.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. to dig, delve, dig up.^[10][4]
2. to engrave, carve, chisel.^[10][14]

Word family

• begrafan
• āgrafan

Descendants

• Middle English graven (→ English grave; Scots grave)^[1]

Related words

• grafet
• græf

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 185
3. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 139
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. grafan
5. ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton, p. 235
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 136
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.68
8. ^ a b c 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
9. ^ a b c d e 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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 487
11. ^ 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. 281
12. ^ Rauer, Christine, ed. (2013), The Old English Martyrology: Edition, Translation and Commentary, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer (glossary), p. s.v. grafan
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. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 99