nebb

Forms

nebb n (strong a-stem; genitive singular nebbes)^[1] Also neb.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *nabi, from Proto-Germanic *nabją (“beak, nose”).^[1][3] The noun has cognates in Old Norse nef (“nose, bill”), Middle Low German nebbe and Middle Dutch nebbe (“beak”).^[3][4]

Its origin is unknown.^[4] Kroonen finds no clear cognates outside Germanic.^[3] Some have connected it with *nabō (“nave”), through a sense protuberance or knob, and others with the Gaulish word nebba (“bill”) recorded by Pliny, which does not appear in the later Celtic languages.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Épinal Glossary, of the late seventh century or about 700, where neb is the first of two glosses to the Latin “rostrum” (beak).^[5][6] The Corpus Glossary, of the early ninth century, glosses “piceca” with neb.^[7][6] In the Pastoral Care (890×897) a woman refused by her husband's kinsman hræce ... him on ðæt nebb foran, spits in his face.^[8][6]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth–Toller gives three senses: a beak or a beak-shaped thing, the nose, and the face.^[9] The beak is the Phoenix's, which shines like glass or a gem, and in the Exeter Book riddles the word is used of the prow of a ship, the share of a plough, the teeth of a rake and the bit of a key.^[9] In the laws of Alfred a man who strikes off another's nose pays sixty shillings.^[9][10] The face is the commonest sense in prose: Ælfric contrasts a man's face, which people see, with his heart, which God sees.^[11] Holthausen and Clark Hall also give colour of the face, complexion.^[12][2] In glosses it renders “rostrum”, “facies” and “vultus”.^[9][13]

The word survives in English neb and nib.^[12][1]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. or vii/viii – neb for Latin “rostrum” in the Épinal Glossary.^[5][6]
• s. ix¹ – Piceca neb in the Corpus Glossary.^[7][6]
• 890×897 – on ðæt nebb foran “in the face” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[8][6]
• 899×924 – in a letter to King Edward about land at Fonthill, a single sheet of the early tenth century, a bramble scratches a fleeing man across the face.^[14][11]
• s. x² – the Phoenix's shining beak in the Exeter Book.^[15][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. a beak, bill; a beak-shaped point.^[9][2]
2. the nose.^[9][10]
3. the face, countenance.^[9][16]
4. complexion, colour of the face.^[2][12]

Descendants

• English neb^[1][12]
• English nib^[1][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 247
3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 380
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ 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. 610
6. ^ a b c d e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
7. ^ 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. 76
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 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. 713
10. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 154
11. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 649
12. ^ a b c d e Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 233
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. nėbb
14. ^ 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 1445
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. 223
16. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 145