licgan

Forms

liċġan (third-person singular present liġþ, past singular læġ, past plural lǣgon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *liggjan, from Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”).^[1][2] Its cognates are Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan), Old Norse liggja, Old Frisian lidza, Old Saxon liggian and Old High German liggen.^[3][2][4]

Kroonen reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European present *legʰ-ie-; outside Germanic he compares Hesychius's Ancient Greek λέχομαι (lékhomai, “to go to sleep”), Old Irish laigid (“to lie down”) and Latin lectus (“bed, couch”).^[3] The Gothic verb has no ⟨-j-⟩ in the present, and Kroonen heads the verb *leg(j)an-.^[3]

In Old English it is a strong verb of class 5 with a weak present, like biddan and sittan: the present is inflected like a weak verb, the rest like a strong one.^[5] Holthausen sets the causative leċġan (“to lay”) and the noun leġer (“bed, lair”) beside it.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated records are in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, 890×897): Ða creopendan & ða scnicendan licgeað mid ealle lichoman on eorðan “the creeping and crawling creatures lie with their whole body on the ground”, and suelce hie ær lægen on longre medtrymnesse “as if they had lain in a long sickness”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is to lie, be at rest or in bed; from it come lying dead or slain and lying low, failing.^[10][4] It is used of places and things that are situated somewhere, of roads and rivers that run or extend, and of land that belongs to an estate.^[2][11] In the glosses it renders Latin “iacere”, “decumbere” and “discumbere”.^[2]

It became Middle English lien, now English lie “to rest horizontally”.^[12]

Timeline

• 890×897 – licgeað … on eorðan “lie on the ground” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[8][9]
• s. x² – ða mæde þe þær to lið “the meadow that belongs to it” in Archbishop Dunstan's endorsement on a Canterbury charter, written in a hand of the later tenth century.^[13]
• s. x/xi – to lie, lie low, lie dead in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. to lie, be in a lying position; to lie down, rest, be in bed.^[10][15]
2. to lie dead or slain; to lie low, fail.^[10][4]
3. to be situated, be; to remain.^[2][11]
4. of a road or river: to lead, extend, run, flow.^[2][11]
5. of land: to belong to.^[2][11]

Word family

• āliċġan
• beliċġan
• forliċġan
• ġeliċġan
• ymbliċġan

Descendants

• Middle English lien (→ English lie; English lig; Scots lie)^[1]

Related words

• ġeliġre
• leċġan
• leġer
• lōg
• lōgian

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. licgan
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 330
4. ^ a b c d 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. licgan
5. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.63
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 197
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 198
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b 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 c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 636
11. ^ a b c d Nerthus: An Online Lexical Database of Old English, Universidad de La Rioja, nerthusproject.com (derivational paradigms, via the Nerthus Project's open data), p. s.v. licgan
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ 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 287
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. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 615