mearc

Forms

mearc f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular mearce, nominative plural mearca)^[1]

• Mercian merc;^[2][3][4] Northumbrian merca in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *marku, from Proto-Germanic *markō (“boundary, region”).^[1][5] The word is in every old Germanic language: Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌺𐌰 (marka, “border, region”), Old Norse mǫrk (“forest”), Old Frisian merke, Old Saxon marka and Old High German marka.^[5][6][7] Middendorff explains the Norse sense “forest” by woods having often served as frontiers in early times.^[8]

Kroonen calls it an old Indo-European word for the marking off of territory, reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *morǵ-eh₂, and suggests a link with the verb Hittite mārki- (“to divide, separate”).^[5] Holthausen and Köbler compare Latin margō (“edge, border”) and Old Irish mruig (“border land, country”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *mereǵ- (“edge, boundary”).^[9][7] Etymonline gives ⟨mearc⟩ as the West Saxon and ⟨merc⟩ as the Mercian form.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears first in charter bounds.^[10][11] A Rochester grant of 862 has bromleaginga mearc “the boundary of the people of Bromley” in its bounds; its single sheet is of the second half of the ninth century, judged by some a later imitation and by Campbell perhaps a copy made before 900.^[10][12] The first sure record is a charter of 889 from Rochester, held to be the original, whose bounds begin bisceopes mearc an norðan “the bishop's boundary on the north”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller set up two articles, for “mark, sign” and for “limit”, and Toller's Supplement joins them under one head, as the OED does for mark.^[2][13] Köbler still keeps two words, one for the boundary and one for the sign.^[7] In the charters the word names the boundary of an estate, often a neighbour's (“the bishop's boundary”); Middendorff finds only this old sense in the field names.^[2][8] The laws use it for the border of a district crossed by a trader and for the mark that the man carrying the hot iron in the ordeal must reach.^[14][13] The poetry uses it of time, the end of a span or of life, as in Beowulf line 2384.^[15][2]

As a sign, it glosses Latin “titulus” and “characteres”, translates the “titulus”, the pillar Jacob set up, and in Ælfric's Grammar the “signa”, the standards of an army.^[2] In Wulfstan it is the mark of Antichrist on the forehead.^[13] The Orosius uses it for a district or province.^[16]

The word lived on as Middle English marke, now English mark;^[4] Etymonline says the Scandinavian cognates influenced the English word and are partly its source.^[4] Romance borrowed the Germanic word early.^[4]

Timeline

• 862 – bromleaginga mearc in the bounds of a Rochester charter, in a ninth-century single sheet of disputed status.^[10][12]
• 889 – bisceopes mearc in the bounds of an original charter of Bishop Swithwulf of Rochester.^[11][12]
• s. x² – the end of a span of time in Genesis A and Christ and Satan in the Junius manuscript.^[17][2]
• s. x³/⁴ – merca for Latin “titulus” in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[18][2]
• s. x/xi – him ðæt to mearce wearþ “that became his life's end” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[19][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. a boundary, border: of an estate, of a district, of the sea.^[2][16][20]
2. a limit or end, of time or of life.^[2][15]
3. a district, province.^[16][20]
4. a mark, sign; a stamp of ownership; a badge or token.^[2][13]
5. a standard, ensign; a stone or pillar set up as a memorial.^[2][13]
6. (law) the point to be reached in the ordeal of the hot iron.^[14][13]

Word family

• mearcian
• Mierċe
• Wedermearc
• fōtġemearc
• mīlġemearc

Descendants

• Middle English marke (→ English mark; Scots merk; Scots mark)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 673
3. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 679
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 355
6. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 262
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. mearc
8. ^ a b Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 93
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 217
10. ^ a b c 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
11. ^ a b c 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 1276
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 633
14. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 143
15. ^ 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. mearc
16. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 231
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. 513
18. ^ 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. 291
19. ^ 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
20. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 136