lengþu

Forms

lengþu f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular lengþe, nominative plural lengþa)^[1] Also written lengþ, lengoþu and lengþo.^[1] Bosworth and Toller head the word lengþ.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *langiþō (“length”), an abstract noun made to the adjective *langaz (“long”), the source of Old English lang.^[1][3][4] The same noun appears as Old Norse lengd and Old Frisian lengithe, and Köbler sets up Old Saxon *lengithi beside them;^[3][5][4] Orel adds Middle Low German lengde.^[3][5][4]

Köbler traces the adjective to Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”) (Pokorny's root *del-).^[5] Kroonen takes *langaz as a nasalised variant of the root seen in Proto-Indo-European *dlh₁gʰ- (“long”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Old English Orosius, in the Tollemache manuscript of the early tenth century: of Alexander's successors it says that Seleucus on lengðe mid him he begeat ealle þa eastlond “in the course of time gained with them all the eastern lands”.^[7][8] Bosworth and Toller read the phrase on lengþe here as “at length”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word is rare in the corpus, with two occurrences in prose.^[8] Its main sense is length, the extent of a thing from end to end: the Peterborough Chronicle, in the annal for 1122, has a fire that weax on lengþe up “grew in length upward” to the clouds.^[2][8] Toller's Supplement adds the sense height, from a prose text of the Solomon and Saturn group that measures a mountain in ðǽre lengoðe.^[9] The phrase on lengþe of the Orosius is used of time.^[2]

The word lived on as Middle English lengthe, now English length.^[1][10]

Timeline

• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – on lengðe “in the course of time” in the Old English Orosius (Tollemache manuscript).^[7][8]
• 1122 – weax on lengþe “grew in length” in the Peterborough Chronicle's annal for that year.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. length, extent from end to end.^[2][5]
2. height.^[9]
3. on lengþe: in the course of time, at length.^[2]

Descendants

• Middle English lengthe (→ English length; Middle Scots lenth; Middle Scots lenthe)^[1]

Related words

• lang
• lengan

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 629
3. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 236
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. lėngþu
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 327
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 611
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com