hyll

Forms

hyll f or m (strong ō-stem; genitive singular hylle, nominative plural hylla)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hulli (“hill”), from Proto-Germanic *hulliz.^[1] Wiktionary traces the Proto-Germanic noun to the i-stem Proto-Indo-European *kólHn-i-s, built on an older n-stem meaning “hill, height”, and gives the Latin word for “hill” as its cognate.^[1] Holthausen also compares Latin collis (“hill”), together with Old Frisian holla (“head”), and refers the word to holm.^[2] Köbler sets up a Germanic noun *hulnis and connects it, with a question mark, with the root Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to rise, tower”).^[3]

Hogg and Fulk list the word among the masculine i-stems.^[4] Because a nominative singular in -e never occurs and forms with a single ⟨l⟩ are found only in late charters, they hold that it passed into the ja-stems at a very early date; as a heavy i-stem it would match the Latin word for “hill”.^[4] Bosworth and Toller record it as both masculine and feminine.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is the interlinear gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, added in the middle of the ninth century, where wynsumnisse hyllas bioð bigyrde “the hills shall be girded with joy” renders the Latin “exultatione colles accingentur” of Psalm 64.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The word has one sense, a hill, and in glossaries it renders Latin “collis”.^[5][3] Beside dūn it translates the pair “montes et colles”, and the poets pair it with beorg and cnoll: hyllas and hea beorgas in Daniel, hyllas and cnollas in Christ.^[5] In the charters it marks points in boundary clauses, and Toller notes that it is the second element of many place names.^[8][9]

The word lived on as Middle English hil, used of a mound or small hill and in place names, now English hill.^[10][11] Etymonline notes that it was once used of mountains as well.^[11]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – hyllas over Latin “colles” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[6][7]
• s. x¹ – hylla beoð bigyrde in the same psalm in the Junius Psalter gloss.^[12][7]
• s. x² – hyllas and cnollas in Christ in the Exeter Book.^[13][5]
• s. x² – hyllas and hea beorgas in Daniel in the Junius manuscript.^[14][5]
• s. x³/⁴ – the dative plural hyllum in the Lindisfarne gloss of Luke 23:30.^[15][16]
• c. 1250 – Middle English Westhyla, a place name in Dorset.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. a hill, a rise of ground.^[5][17][3]
2. (charters) a hill named as a boundary point; the second element of place names.^[8][9]

Word family

• sandhyll
• ǣmethyll
• ċiriċhyll

Descendants

• Middle English hil (→ English hill; Scots hill; Scots hull)^[1]

Related words

• holm

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 183
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hyll
4. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.57
5. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 581
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. 329
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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 586
9. ^ a b LangScape: The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside, King's College London, langscape.org.uk
10. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 515
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. 223
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. 513
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. 291
16. ^ Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. hyll
17. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 120