hieran

Forms

hīeran (weak class 1; third-person singular present hīereþ, past singular hīerde, past plural hīerdon)^[1] Kentish and Mercian hēran, Northumbrian hēra; late West Saxon hȳran and hīran.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hauzijaną (“to hear”).^[1][4] Its cognates are Old Frisian hēra, Old Saxon hōrian, Old High German hōren, Old Norse heyra and Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hausjan).^[5][6][7] The Gothic verb has /s/ for /z/, which Ringe and Taylor attribute to analogy, perhaps with the word for “ear”.^[4]

Feist and Holthausen compare Ancient Greek ἀκούω (akoúō, “to hear”).^[8][6] Kroonen reconstructs a PIE verb Proto-Indo-European *h₂kous-ie-,^[5] and Wiktionary explains it as Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱh₂owsyéti (“to be sharp-eared”), a formation from “sharp” and “ear”.^[1] Köbler gives Pokorny's root Proto-Indo-European *kews- (“to notice, to hear”).^[7]

The Germanic voiced sibilant /z/ appears as ⟨r⟩, and the diphthong was fronted by the following *j: the Germanic verb gave *hēarjan, early West Saxon *hīerjan and hīeran, but Kentish and Mercian hēran and Northumbrian hēra.^[4][2] It is a weak verb of the first class.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in a Kentish charter of 873, by which King Alfred and Archbishop Æthelred grant land at Ileden to Liaba; its English note names the archbishop's community ðe to Cristes cirican herað “who belong to Christ Church”.^[9][10] The single sheet is in a ninth-century hand.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant to hear and to hear of, and in the poetry hȳrde ic “I have heard” introduces a report.^[3][11] With the dative it meant to listen to, obey or serve, as when the Pastoral Care tells children ðæt hi sua hieren hira ieldrum “that they should obey their parents”.^[12][10][3] With tō or intō it meant to belong to, used of lands and men attached to an estate, a minster or a borough.^[3][13] Sweet notes that West Saxon used the ġe- form for the senses of hearing and obeying, but never for “belong”.^[14] In the glosses it renders Latin audire, oboedire and servire.^[7]

It lived on as Middle English heren, now English hear.^[1]

Timeline

• 873 – herað “belong” in a Kentish charter of Alfred, in a ninth-century single sheet.^[9][10]
• 890×897 – hieren hira ieldrum “obey their parents” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[12][10]
• s. x² – in the poems of the Vercelli Book and the Exeter Book.^[15][16][10]
• s. x³/⁴ – Northumbrian hērað, hēres in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[17][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. to hear, hear of; to hear (someone) say.^[3][11]
2. to listen to, give ear.^[11][14]
3. (with dative) to obey, follow, serve.^[3][14]
4. (with tō, intō) to belong to, be subject to.^[3][13]

Word family

• ġehīeran
• hīersum
• hīeremann
• mishīeran
• oferhīeran

Descendants

• Middle English heren (→ English hear; Scots her; Scots hear)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 245
3. ^ 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. 582
4. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 83
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 217
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 159
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hīeran
8. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 152
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 344
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 c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 542
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 115
14. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 110
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. 704
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. 223
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. 291