hrif
Pronunciation
- /xrif/, [r̥if][1]
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
- the womb.[5][3]
- the belly, abdomen; the interior of the body.[5][9]
- (poetic) of things: the belly of a bow.[12]
Word family
- midhrif
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 174
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hrif
- ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 116
- ^ Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. hrif
- ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 117
- ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 566
- ^ 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
- ^ 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