hleapan

Forms

hlēapan (strong class 7; third-person singular present hlīepþ, past singular hlēop, past plural hlēopon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hlaupan, from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to run, to jump”).^[1][2] The verb is shared by the other old Germanic languages: Old Frisian hlāpa, Old Saxon hlōpan, Old High German loufan and Old Norse hlaupa, while Gothic has only the compound Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (ushlaupan, “to leap up”).^[2][3][4]

Further back the etymology is uncertain: Köbler puts a question mark on a link with the root Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to stumble, to trot”) given by Pokorny.^[4] Holthausen compares a Lithuanian word for limping,^[3] and Wiktionary derives the Germanic verb from Proto-Indo-European *klewb- (“to spring, to hop”), comparing Lithuanian klùpti (“to stumble”).^[1]

Proto-Germanic /au/ appears in Old English as ⟨ēa⟩, beside the ⟨ā⟩ of the Old Frisian form.^[2] It is a strong verb of the seventh (reduplicating) class.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first securely dated record is in Bald's Leechbook, a manuscript of the mid-tenth century, where a charm for a disease tells the healer to take a fox, strike a tooth out of it while it is alive and læt hleapan aweg “let it run away”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The Old English verb covered both running and jumping.^[8][9] In the Old English Bede the lame man healed at the temple gate goes gongende & hleapende “walking and leaping”,^[10][7] and the Catholic Homilies use the present participle for the dancing daughter of Herodias.^[8] In Beowulf the warriors let their horses run in races,^[11] and in the Chronicle men leap into a castle or break out and flee.^[8][9] With ūp it meant to mount a horse, and in a psalm translation sins “leap” over the head.^[9] Klaeber glosses it “leap, gallop” in Beowulf.^[11]

The verb lived on as Middle English lepen, now English leap.^[1]

Timeline

• s. x med. – læt hleapan aweg “let it run away” in Bald's Leechbook.^[6][7]
• s. x² – hleopon hornboran “the trumpeters ran” in Elene in the Vercelli Book.^[12][9]
• s. x/xi – horses let run in contest in the Beowulf manuscript.^[13][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. to jump, spring, leap.^[8][9][4]
2. to run, go hastily, rush; to break out, flee.^[9]
3. to dance.^[8]
4. with ūp: to mount a horse.^[9]

Word family

• āhlēapan
• behlēapan
• oferhlēapan
• oþhlēapan
• hlēapere
• hlēapettan

Descendants

• Middle English lepen (→ English leap; Scots lepe; Scots leip)^[1]

Related words

• hlīep

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 172
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 162
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hlēapan
5. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 348
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. 412
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 541
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. 550
10. ^ 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. 531
11. ^ a b c 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. hlēapan
12. ^ 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
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. 344