hrif

Forms

hrif n (strong a-stem; genitive singular hrifes, nominative plural hrifu)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hrif, from Proto-Germanic *hrefaz (“body, belly”).^[1] Its cognates are Old Frisian href (“belly”) and Old High German href (“womb”), also written ref.^[2][3][4]

Holthausen, Köbler and Wiktionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *krep- (“body, shape”), the root of Latin corpus (“body”).^[2][3][1] Bosworth and Toller also record the spelling ⟨rif⟩, without the initial ⟨h⟩.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first securely dated record is in Bald's Leechbook (Royal 12 D. xvii, s. x med.), in a chapter heading on remedies ge on þam uferran hrife ge on þam niþerran “both in the upper belly and in the lower”.^[6][7] The Old English Bede in Tanner 10, which Gneuss and Lapidge date to the early tenth or the first half of the eleventh century, speaks of a man lame swa geboren of his modor hrife “so born from his mother's womb”.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give the womb and the belly;^[5][9] Sweet adds the interior of the body and the stomach.^[5][9] In glosses it renders Latin “uterus”, “venter” and “vulva”, and the Lindisfarne gloss has it for “uterus” in Matthew and Luke.^[3][10] The medical texts use it of the abdomen, and Alfred's laws set a payment gif mon bið on hrif wund “if a man is wounded in the belly”.^[5][11] In the Riddles it is used of things: a bow says that something flies of hrife “from its belly”.^[12] The simplex survives in the compound midhrif.^[5][1]

Timeline

• s. x med. – on þam uferran hrife in Bald's Leechbook.^[6][7]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – of his modor hrife in the Old English Bede (Tanner 10).^[8][7]
• s. x² – hrif for “uterus” in the Durham Ritual gloss, and in the Exeter Book Riddles.^{[5][13][14][7]}

Meanings

Noun

1. the womb.^[5][3]
2. the belly, abdomen; the interior of the body.^[5][9]
3. (poetic) of things: the belly of a bow.^[12]

Word family

• midhrif

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 174
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hrif
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 560
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 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. 531
9. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 116
10. ^ Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. hrif
11. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 117
12. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 566
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. 204
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