grindan

Forms

grindan (strong class 3; third-person singular present grint, past singular grand, past plural grundon)^[1] Past singular also grond, past participle grunden.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *grindan, from Proto-Germanic *grindaną (“to grind”).^[1][3] Kroonen lists the strong verb from Old English alone among the old Germanic languages, and sets beside it the nouns Old High German grint (“scurf”) and Dutch grind (“gravel”), from *grinda-, and Icelandic grand (“grain, particle”) and Low German grand (“sand”), from *granda-.^[3] Holthausen also connects the noun grund.^[4]

Outside Germanic the verb is matched by Latin frendō (“to grind one's teeth”) and Lithuanian gręsti (“to plane, scour”).^[3][4] Kroonen reconstructs the root with a labiovelar, Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰrendʰ-, while Köbler gives *gʰrendʰ- (“to grind”) and takes it as an extension of *gʰer- (“to rub”);^[3][5][1] Wiktionary leaves the choice between the two reconstructions open.^[3][5][1]

It is a strong verb of the third class, inflected like bindan.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest manuscript with the verb is Bald's Leechbook, of the mid-tenth century: against a worm that has eaten its way out and made a hole, it prescribes hafa þonne gebrocen glæs geara gegrunden, scead on þæt þyrel “then have broken glass, well ground, and shake it into the hole”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller's quotations show the verb used of grinding corn in a mill, the Latin “molere” and “commolere” of the glosses, as in the two women grinding at the mill of the Gospels and Samson made to grind at a hand-mill in Judges.^[2][9][5] The teeth grind too: the Spelman Psalter has hí grundon ofer me mid tóðum for “frenduerunt super me dentibus suis”, and a medical text calls the molars grindigtéþ because they grind what a man lives on.^[2][9]

In poetry the verb is used of things scraping against each other: the ship grond wið greóte “ground against the gravel” in Guthlac, and the waves grundon in the storm of Andreas.^[2][10] A gloss renders Latin “depremit” with grint, of crushing or oppressing.^[9] Holthausen and Köbler also give the senses “sharpen, whet”.^[4][5]

The verb lived on as Middle English grinden, used of crushing things to powder and of grinding grain, now English grind.^[11][12]

Timeline

• s. x med. – glass geara gegrunden “well ground” for a wound in Bald's Leechbook.^[7][8]
• s. x² – wægas grundon in Andreas in the Vercelli Book.^[13][8][10]
• s. x² – searo grindan wið greote in a riddle of the Exeter Book.^[14][2]
• s. x ex. – grinst in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[15][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. to grind corn in a mill; to crush to powder.^[2][9][5]
2. to grind the teeth, gnash.^[2][9]
3. to rub or scrape against something, grate.^[9][4]
4. to sharpen, whet.^[4][5]
5. (glosses) to crush, oppress.^[9]

Word family

• begrindan
• forgrindan
• ġegrindan

Descendants

• Middle English grynden (→ English grind; Scots grynde; Scots grynd)^[1]

Related words

• grund

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 490
3. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 190
4. ^ a b c d e Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 137
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. grindan
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.57
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 487
10. ^ a b North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary)
11. ^ 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. ^ 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. 704
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. 407