lang

Forms

lang (comparative lengra, superlative lenġest)^[1]

• Also long, the form under which Klaeber enters the word.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”).^[1][3] Its cognates are Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌲𐍃 (laggs), Old Norse langr, Old Frisian long, Old Saxon lang and Old High German lang.^[3][4][5]

Outside Germanic Orel equates it with Latin longus (“long”) and relates it, with irregular correspondences, to other words for “long” such as Ancient Greek δολιχός (dolikhós).^[4] Kroonen sees in it a nasalised form of the root Proto-Indo-European *dlh₁gʰ- (“long”), which implies a nasal present that is not attested;^[3][1][6] Wiktionary and Köbler reconstruct Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos.^[3][1][6] Etymonline gives the Indo-European etymology only as “perhaps”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bounds of a charter of 862 for Bromley, Kent (S 331), run to langan leage “to the long clearing”, but its ninth-century single sheet was called a later imitation by some scholars and a copy of a genuine original by others.^[8][9] The first sure record is temporal: the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, written 890×897) has the bad servant of the parable say Hit bið long hwonne se hlaford cume “it will be long before the lord comes”.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller begin with length in space: a wood hundtwelftiges míla lang “a hundred and twenty miles long”, a long road, a long tongue, a long ship.^[11][12] Of people it means “tall”, as when the Old English Bede describes a man as lang on bodige “tall of body”;^[11][13] The Battle of Maldon names Eádweard se langa.^[11][13] In time it is “long, lasting”: lange hwīle “for a long while” is frequent in Beowulf.^[2][14] Langa frīġedæġ is Good Friday.^[13]

It lived on as Middle English long, now English long, with the same senses of length, height and distance.^[15][7]

Timeline

• 890×897 – Hit bið long hwonne se hlaford cume in the Pastoral Care.^[10][9]
• s. ix/x – up on long Mæse “up along the Meuse” in the annal for 882 of the Parker Chronicle.^[16][9]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – Britain norð ehta hund mila lang “eight hundred miles long to the north” in the Old English Bede.^[17][9]
• a1121 – mid langan leoman “with a long beam” of a comet in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. long in space.^[11][6]
2. tall, high.^[12][13]
3. long in time, lasting.^[2][6]

Word family

• lange
• langian
• langlīċe
• langmōd
• langsum
• lenġu
• lencten
• furlang
• nihtlang
• langsċip

Descendants

• Middle English long (→ English long; Middle Scots lang)^[1]

Usage notes

Holthausen keeps apart a second lang, “dependent on, belonging to”, found as ġelang, with andlang and ēastlang “extending (eastwards)”, and connects it with Lithuanian words for “bend” rather than with this adjective.^[18] Clark Hall too gives ġelang its own entry.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. long
3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 327
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 235
5. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 345
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. lang
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 331
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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. 499
11. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 619
12. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 605
13. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 126
14. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 131
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ 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. 83
17. ^ 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
18. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 195
19. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 210