lippa

Forms

lippa m (weak; genitive singular lippan, nominative plural lippan)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *lippjō, from Proto-Germanic *lipjô (“lip”).^[1] Kroonen reconstructs the Proto-Germanic noun as *lepjan-, Orel as *lep(j)ōn; it is also the source of Old Frisian lippa and Middle Dutch lippe, and Orel adds the Old Swedish forms.^[2][3] Old High German lefs and leffur are related forms without the suffix.^[2][4][5]

Kroonen derives it from an n-stem with the suffix ⟨-ion-⟩ and finds it close to Latin labium (“lip”) and Ancient Greek λοβός (lobós, “lobe”), both from a root form *lob-.^[2] Orel and Holthausen also relate it to the Latin word, and Köbler to Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely”) (Pokorny 655).^[3][5][4] Etymonline reports that Boutkan and de Vaan reject the traditional Indo-European derivation, though they accept that the Latin and Germanic words are probably related, perhaps through a substrate.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word has no early dated record in the corpus.^[7] Bosworth and Toller quote it from Ælfric's Glossary, which names the upper lip ufeweard lippa and the lower lip niðera lippe, from glosses, and in a remedy wið lippe sar “for a sore lip” in the medical texts.^[8] Its other occurrences in the DOE Corpus are in glosses on Aldhelm, the Benedictine Rule and the psalters, and in a few homilies and laws.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The noun means “lip”, one of the two fleshy edges of the mouth;^[9] Toller's Supplement quotes it with reference to eating, in a gloss on Aldhelm, and to speech, in Míne lippan þú geopena “open my lips” in the Benedictine Rule.^[9] It was not the usual word: in most texts, and in all the versions of the Psalter, Latin “labia” is rendered by weler.^[9]

The word lived on as Middle English lippe, now English lip.^[1][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. a lip of the mouth.^[8][10][4]

Descendants

• Middle English lippe (→ English lip; Scots lip)^[1]

Related words

• weler

Usage notes

Bosworth and Toller's Supplement notes that weler is the common word where modern English has “lip”, so that lippa is the rarer word.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 331
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 241
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. lippa
5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 904
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b 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. 642
9. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 619
10. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 130