is

Forms

īs n (strong a-stem; genitive singular īses)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *īs, from Proto-Germanic *īsą (“ice”).^[1] The word is Old Norse íss, Old Frisian īs, Old Saxon īs and Old High German īs in the other Germanic languages.^[2][3][4]

It has no certain cognates outside Germanic.^[4] Orel and Holthausen compare Avestan aēxa- (“frost, cold”) and isu- (“icy”) and an Ossetic word for ice;^[2][3] Kroonen admits the Avestan word only if it goes back to *h₁eiH-ko- with a metathesis of the laryngeal, and suggests that the West Germanic neuter may continue an s-stem.^[4] Köbler sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *eis- (“ice, frost”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old English Orosius, in a manuscript of the first half of the tenth century, tells how the Danube was frozen so hard “þæt hie getruwedon þæt hie ofer þæm ise faran mehten” “that they trusted they could cross over the ice”, and most of them perished there.^[6][7][8] Other early forms such as is and ist in the Old English Bede and the Durham Ritual are the verb “is” and do not date the noun.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word means ice, and in the plural pieces of ice: the Old English Bede renders “crustis glacierum” with styccum healfbrocenra isa.^[9] The poems use it in images of winter and melting: in Andreas ice bridged the streams, and in Beowulf the giant's sword melted ise gelicost “most like ice”.^[9][10] It is also the name of the rune ᛁ for ⟨i⟩, which the Rune Poem calls “over-cold and immeasurably slippery”.^[9] Ælfric's Glossary gives it for Latin “glacies”.^[9][5]

It lived on as Middle English is, also ise, and the English word ice.^[11][12]

Timeline

• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – ofer þæm ise “over the ice” of the frozen Danube in the Old English Orosius.^[6][7]
• s. x² – ís brycgade “ice formed a bridge” in Andreas, in the Vercelli Book.^[13][9]
• s. x/xi – ise gelicost in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][10]
• s. xi in. – ise in Ælfric's Lives of Saints (the Forty Soldiers).^[15][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. ice; in the plural, pieces of ice.^[9][5]
2. the name of the rune ᛁ (i).^[9]

Word family

• īsċeald
• īsiġ
• īsearn

Descendants

• Middle English is (→ English ice; Scots ice)^[1]

Usage notes

The page also holds the verb form is “is”, of bēon and wesan;^[9] Bosworth and Toller send it to eom.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 204
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 189
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 271
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. īs
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. 249
7. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 597
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 601
10. ^ a b 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. īs
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 704
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. 344
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. 282