niman

Forms

niman (third-person singular present nimeþ, past singular nam, past plural nōmon)^[1] Épinal Glossary: past plural naamun;^[2][3][4] Corpus Glossary: nomun.^[2][3][4] Mercian: nioman, neoman;^[5] Northumbrian: nioma.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *neman, from Proto-Germanic *nemaną (“to take”).^[1][6] The strong verb is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman), Old Norse nema, Old Frisian nima, Old Saxon niman and Old High German neman.^[7][8]

Orel and Holthausen relate it to Ancient Greek νέμω (némō, “to deal out, distribute”), and Köbler, following Pokorny, to the root Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to allot, take”).^[7][9][10] Wiktionary reports two views: a middle “to allot to oneself” of Proto-Indo-European *németi (“to allocate”), and Kortlandt's derivation, followed by Kroonen, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁em- (“to take”) with an ⟨n⟩ taken over from a prefix.^[1]

It is a strong verb of the fourth class, with Mercian and Northumbrian forms in ⟨io⟩ and ⟨eo⟩.^[11][5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is in the oldest English glossary: the Épinal Glossary, of the late seventh or about 700, glosses Latin (h)auserunt “they drew, they took” with the past plural naamun.^[2][4][12] The Corpus Glossary of the early ninth century has nomun in the same place.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller set out the senses as taking and receiving, keeping and holding, catching, containing, carrying, giving, and taking by force, with many set phrases.^[11] The Vespasian Psalter gloss has nome mettas “you took food” with the psalmist's friend, and the Pastoral Care a woman who leaves her husband & nimð hire oðerne “and takes another”.^[13][14][4] In Beowulf it is used of death or battle carrying men off.^[15] Köbler lists the Latin verbs it glosses: accipere, sumere, capere, auferre and rapere, among others.^[10]

The verb lived on as Middle English nimen.^[5] Durkin shows how tacan, borrowed from Old Norse in very late Old English, ousted it, first in the east and north Midlands and the north and later in the south.^[16][17] English kept nim “to steal” in slang and numb, from the old past participle.^[18]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. or vii/viii – auserunt naamun “they drew” in the Épinal Glossary.^[2][4]
• s. ix¹ – nomun in the Corpus Glossary.^[3][4]
• s. ix med. – nome mettas “you took food” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[13][4]
• 890×897 – nimð hire oðerne “takes another” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[14][4]
• s. x/xi – nam, nōm in the Beowulf manuscript.^[19][15]

Meanings

Verb

1. to take, receive, get, accept.^[11][20]
2. to take and keep, hold; to contain, have room for.^[11][20]
3. to catch, seize, capture; to take by force, carry off.^[11][15]
4. to take with one, carry, bring.^[11]
5. to take as wife, marry.^[10]

Word family

• ġeniman
• beniman
• forniman
• āniman
• underniman

Descendants

• Middle English nimen (→ English nim; English numb; Scots nim)^[1]

Related words

• nām

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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
3. ^ a b c d 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
5. ^ a b c d 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)
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 284
8. ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton, p. 357
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 236
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. niman
11. ^ 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. 721
12. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 651
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. 329
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c 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. niman
16. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 182
17. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 205
18. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 147