morgen

Forms

morgen m (strong a-stem; genitive singular morgnes, nominative plural morgnas)^[1] Beside morgen the texts have merġen, meriġen, margen and myrġen.^[1][2] The dative is often written morgenne, and the Lindisfarne gloss has merne in phrases such as on merne.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *morgan, from Proto-Germanic *murginaz (“morning”); the Old English variant merġen continues the variant *morgin with another vowel in the second syllable.^[1] The Proto-Germanic noun is also the source of Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐌹𐌽𐍃 (maurgins), Old Norse morgunn and myrginn, Old Frisian morgen, Old Saxon morgan, Old Dutch morgan and Old High German morgan.^[5][6][7]

Ringe and Taylor derive the locative ⟨on merġen⟩ “in the morning” and the nominative ⟨merġen⟩ from forms with ⟨i⟩ in the second syllable, and set up a Proto-Germanic alternation *murgana- ~ *murgina-; they note that the Old English forms have been remodelled several times.^[8] Hogg and Fulk class the word with the a-stems that have an endingless locative, as in ⟨on morgen⟩ “in the morning”.^[9]

Orel equates the word with Proto-Slavic *mьrčьnъ (“dark”) and relates it to Old Irish mrecht (“multicoloured”) and Lithuanian mérkti (“to blink”).^[5] Köbler connects it with Proto-Indo-European *merk- (“to flicker, grow dark”) (Pokorny 733), and Wiktionary with *merkʷ-.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the Pastoral Care, copied in 890×897, where it means “tomorrow”: quoting the Book of Proverbs, the text warns that one should not say to a friend Ga, & cum to morgenne, ðonne selle ic ðe hwæthwugu “Go, and come tomorrow, then I will give you something”.^[10][11][12] The sense “morning” is in the Parker Chronicle, copied from about 900: in the annal for 755 Ða on morgenne gehierdun “then in the morning they heard” that the king had been killed.^[13][11]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give two senses: “morning”, often in the phrases on morgen and on morgenne, and “the morning of the next day, the morrow”, especially in tō morgen and tō morgenne “tomorrow”, which renders Latin “cras”.^[12] Sweet adds “daybreak” and lists þǣs on morgenne “the next morning”.^[14] In the Lindisfarne gloss it renders Latin “crastinus” and “mane”.^[4][2] In the medical texts it counts days of treatment, as in nigon morgenas “nine mornings”.^[12] In Beowulf it means both “morning” and “morrow”.^[7]

The word lived on as Middle English morwe and morn, whence English morrow and morn.^[1]

Timeline

• 890×897 – cum to morgenne “come tomorrow” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[10][11]
• s. ix/x – on morgenne “in the morning” in the Parker Chronicle, annal 755.^[13][11]
• s. x med. – days of treatment counted in mornings in Bald's Leechbook.^[15][12]
• s. x³/⁴ – morgen for Latin “crastinus” in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[16][4]
• s. x/xi – syððan morgen com “after morning came” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[17][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. morning, daybreak, the forenoon.^[12][3][14]
2. the next day, the morrow;^[12][7] tō morgen “tomorrow”.^[12][7]

Word family

• ǣrmorgen
• morgendæġ
• morgenlēoht
• morgenmete
• morgensteorra
• morgenġiefu
• morgenspell
• morgenlīċ
• morgencolla
• morgensēoc

Descendants

• Middle English morwe (→ English morrow; English morn; Scots morrow)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. morgen
3. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 240
4. ^ a b c Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. morgen
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 276
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ 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. morgen
8. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 19
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.18
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 Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 697
13. ^ 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. 83
14. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 142
15. ^ 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. 412
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. 291
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. 344