murnan

Forms

murnan (strong class 3; third-person singular present myrnþ, past singular mearn, past plural murnon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *murnaną (“to mourn, worry”),^[1][2] continued in Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌰𐌽 (maurnan, “to be anxious”), Old Saxon mornon (“to worry”) and Old High German mornēn (“to mourn, be sad”).^[3][4][5] Holthausen and Feist list Old Norse morna with them, but the EWA separates it because it means “to wither”, and puts it with the Old High German family of maro (“tender, withered”).^[6][4][5]

Lehmann, Feist, Holthausen and Köbler connect the verb with the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember, care for”), which is also behind Avestan mimara- (“mindful”) and Latin memor (“mindful”).^[3][4][6][7] Within Old English the same root gives ġemimor (“known”) and mamorian (“to ponder”).^[4][8]

Hogg and Fulk count murnan among the “aorist presents” of the third strong class: it has the reduced grade of the root where *meornan would be expected.^[9][10] They note weak preterite forms in the poem Andreas, compare the weak Gothic and Old High German verbs, and take the strong forms to have arisen when the third weak class all but disappeared.^[10][11] Lehmann cites the view that its present was formed with a nasal suffix.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Old English Boethius, in a manuscript of the mid-tenth century: Gif þu þonne heora þegen beon wilt & þe heora þeawas liciað, to hwon myrnst þu swa swiðe? “If you want to be their servant and their ways please you, why do you grieve so much?”, rendering the Latin “ne queraris”.^[12][13][14]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller define the verb as to mourn, be sad or be anxious, and it is often joined with on mōde “in the mind”.^[14] In Beowulf it means both to mourn, as in Sélre biþ ǽghwæm ðæt hé his freónd wrece, ðonne hé fela murne “it is better for everyone to avenge his friend than to mourn much”, and to feel fear or scruple, to shrink from something.^[15][14] Sweet adds the sense to care for or regard someone, with for.^[16] In the laws it means to shrink from doing something, with an infinitive.^[17] Most of its records are in verse: six poems in the corpus.^[14][13]

As Middle English mornen it meant to grieve and to be anxious, and it is now English mourn.^[18][19]

Timeline

• s. x med. – to hwon myrnst þu swa swiðe? in the Old English Boethius.^[12][13]
• s. x² – murnende mod in Andreas in the Vercelli Book.^[20][13]
• s. x² – Cwom seo murnende Maria in The Descent into Hell in the Exeter Book.^[21][14]
• s. x/xi – murne “should mourn” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[22][15]
• c. 1275 – Middle English mornede swþe “grieved greatly” in Laȝamon's Brut.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. to mourn, be sad, grieve.^[14][15]
2. to be anxious, to fear; to shrink from, have scruples about.^[15][17]
3. to care for, reck, regard (with for).^[16]
4. to lament, bemoan.^[16]

Word family

• bemurnan
• unmurnlīċe

Descendants

• Middle English mornen (→ English mourn; Middle Scots murn; Middle Scots murne)^[1]

Related words

• ġemimor
• mamorian

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 277
3. ^ a b c Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 276
4. ^ a b c d Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 210
5. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 227
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. murnan
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 271
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.36
10. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.52
11. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.130
12. ^ 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. 296
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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. 702
15. ^ 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. murnan
16. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 143
17. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 151
18. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
19. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
20. ^ 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. 704
21. ^ 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. 223
22. ^ 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