heafod

Forms

hēafod n (strong a-stem; genitive singular hēafdes, nominative plural hēafdu)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”).^[1] The noun is common Germanic: Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌸 (haubiþ), Old Norse hǫfuð, Old Frisian hāved, Old Saxon hōƀid and Old High German houbit.^[2][3][4] Ringe and Taylor reconstruct Proto-Germanic *haubidą (from the Gothic form) and probably Proto-West Germanic *haubid (from the Old Saxon and Old High German forms); the Old English ⟨o⟩ points to the Proto-West Germanic form given above, in which the suffix vowel was perhaps changed before a back vowel in the plural and then levelled through the paradigm.^[5]

Orel takes the Germanic word as a secondary variant, perhaps due to taboo, of *xaƀuđan, continued in the Old Norse word and identical with Latin caput (“head”).^[2][6] Wiktionary's Proto-Germanic page likewise has an older *habudą kept in most North Germanic dialects, and suggests a metathesis within the paradigm.^[1] Holthausen and Köbler set the word beside hūfe;^[3][7] Köbler compares the root Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to seize”).^[3][7]

In the inflected forms the middle vowel is nearly always lost in early West Saxon and in the Anglian dialects, verse included: ⟨hēafdes⟩, ⟨hēafde⟩.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the bounds of a charter of King Æthelwulf dated 846: fram smalan cumbes heafde to græwan stane ðonon wiðufan ðæs wælles heafod “from the head of the narrow valley to the grey stone, thence above the head of the spring”.^[9][10] Its single-sheet copy is of the mid-ninth century, held to be contemporary by some scholars and doubtful by others.^[9][10] The Vespasian Psalter gloss of the mid-ninth century has uphebbende heafud min over “exaltans caput meum” of Psalm 3.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

The word is first the head of a person or animal, and the head as a measure (a door that a man's head and shoulders can pass).^[12] It is also the seat of thought: the Pastoral Care has ðæt hēafod sceal wīsian ðǣm fōtum “the head must guide the feet”.^[12] In the laws the head stands for a man's life: be his hēafde “on pain of death”, hēafod wið hēafde “head for head”, one by one.^[13][14]

Figuratively it is a chief, leader or originator, and a source: the devil is hēafod ealra unrihtwīsra dǣda “the source of all unrighteous deeds” in the Blickling Homilies, and in the Orosius Babylon is built to be hēafod ealra Asiria, the capital.^[15] In the charters it often names the upper end of a valley, field or hill, or the source of a stream.^[15][13] The plant names use it for a head of flowers and for a bulb, especially of garlic.^[16]

The word lived on as Middle English heed, now English head.^[1][17]

Timeline

• 846 – smalan cumbes heafde in the bounds of Æthelwulf's charter.^[9][10]
• s. ix med. – heafud min glossing “caput meum” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[11][10]
• 890×897 – the head that guides the feet in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[12][18]
• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – Babylon as hēafod ealra Asiria in the Old English Orosius.^[15][19]
• s. x/xi – hēafod and hēafde in the Beowulf manuscript.^[20][21]

Meanings

Noun

1. the head of a person or animal.^[15][7]
2. (law) a person's life; a person: be his hēafde “on pain of death”.^[13][14]
3. a chief, leader; an originator, source.^[15][13]
4. a capital city.^[15][13]
5. the top or upper end; in charter bounds, the head of a valley or the source of a stream.^[15][13]
6. (plants) a head of flowers; a bulb, especially of garlic.^[16]

Word family

• forehēafod
• hēafodlēas
• hēafodling
• hēafodpanne
• hēafodwærċ
• hēafodwund
• hēafodclāþ
• hēafodland
• oferhēafod
• behēafdian

Descendants

• Middle English heed (→ English head; English 'ead; English heead)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 165
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 150
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 257
6. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 148
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hēafod
8. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 270
9. ^ 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 298
10. ^ 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
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. 329
12. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 512
13. ^ a b c d e f Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 105
14. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 111
15. ^ 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. 513
16. ^ a b Bierbaumer, Peter; Sauer, Hans; Klug, Helmut W.; Krischke, Ulrike, eds. (2007–), Dictionary of Old English Plant Names, Graz, oldenglish-plantnames.org, p. s.v. hēafod
17. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 499
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. 249
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. hēafod
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