grund

Forms

grund m (nominative plural grundas) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *grundu, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz (“ground, foundation”).^[1] The Proto-Germanic noun is also the source of Old Frisian grund, Old Saxon grund, Old High German grunt and Old Norse grunnr (“bottom”), and of the first part of Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌿𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌳𐌾𐌿𐍃 (grunduwaddjus, “foundation wall”).^[2][3][4]

Orel sets up a preform *gʰr̥n-tu- to a root *gʰren- and compares Ancient Greek χραίνω (khraínō, “to touch lightly, smear”) and Lithuanian pãgrindas (“lake bottom”);^[2][4] Köbler too connects the root Proto-Indo-European *gʰren- (Pokorny 459).^[2][4] Wiktionary instead derives it from a tu-stem *gʰr̥m-tú- to a root *gʰrem- (“floor, settlement”) and thinks the Lithuanian word less likely related.^[1] Etymonline knows no cognates outside Germanic.^[5] Holthausen refers to grindan (“to grind”) and grynde.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the Vespasian Psalter gloss, added in the middle of the ninth century, where ðu gedroefes grund sæs “you stir up the bottom of the sea” renders the Latin “qui conturbas fundum maris” of Psalm 64.^[6][7] In the Pastoral Care, copied in 890×897, it is the foundation of a wall: one must first make sure that se grund fæsð sie “the ground is firm” before laying the foundation.^[8][7][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller group the senses under three heads: the bottom or foundation of something (the bottom of the sea, the floor of a cave, the base of a building), the ground or earth, land, country and plain, and a depth or abyss, the sea and hell.^[10] Toller's Supplement adds the solid bed under the sea or a river and a piece of cultivated land.^[9] The “earth” and “plain” senses belong mainly to poetry: Beowulf uses it for the bottom of the mere, the floor of the dragon's barrow and the wide earth, and Andreas for ground, earth, abyss and terrain.^[11][12] In glosses it renders Latin “fundus”, “fundamentum” and “profundum”.^[13][14]

The word lived on as Middle English ground, now English ground;^[15][5] Etymonline traces the sea-bottom sense to the phrase run aground.^[15][5]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – grund sæs “the bottom of the sea” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[6][7]
• 890×897 – the firm ground under a wall, beside grundweall “foundation”, in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[8][7]
• s. x¹ – oþ þone grund “down to the ground” of a wall thrown down, in the Old English Orosius.^[16][7][9]
• s. x² – grund for the earth in the poems of the Exeter Book and the Vercelli Book.^[17][18][10]
• s. x/xi – the floor of the dragon's barrow and the bottom of the mere in the Beowulf manuscript.^[19][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. the bottom of something, especially of the sea or of water; a floor.^[10][20]
2. a foundation, the base on which a building stands.^[9][21]
3. the ground, the earth; land, country, a plain.^[10][21]
4. a depth, an abyss; the sea; hell.^[10][21]

Word family

• grundweall
• grundstān
• grundlēas
• grundlunga
• hellegrund
• eormengrund
• meregrund
• sǣgrund
• ġegrundweallian

Descendants

• Middle English ground (→ English ground; Scots grund)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 144
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 139
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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. 329
7. ^ 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
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 d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 488
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. 491
11. ^ a b 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. grund
12. ^ North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary), p. s.v. grund
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. grund
14. ^ Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. grund
15. ^ 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)
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. 249
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. 223
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. 704
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. 344
20. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 100
21. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 159