Etymologically
Log in

open

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 18:17. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

open (adjective; masculine accusative singular openne, dative plural openum).[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *opan, from Proto-Germanic *upanaz (“open”).[1][4] The Proto-Germanic adjective survives as Old Norse opinn, Old Frisian open or epen, Old Saxon opan and Old High German offan.[4][5]

Orel takes it as a derivative of Proto-Germanic *uppa (“up”) with the suffix of the strong past participle, and Holthausen and Köbler also connect it with upp.[4][5][6] Wiktionary sees in it the participle of a verb Proto-Germanic *ūpaną (“to lift up”), which is not otherwise attested, so that the first sense would have been “lying on top”, then “clear, open”.[1] Köbler traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *upo (“under, up”), as does Etymonline.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is the mid-ninth-century gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, Psalm 5:10: Byrgen open is hraece heara “an open grave is their throat”, over the Latin “sepulchrum patens est guttur eorum”.[8][3] In the Pastoral Care (890×897) the doctor who goes about healing others hæfð on his agnum nebbe opene wunde unlacnode “has an open wound unhealed on his own face”.[9][3]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller begin with the physical senses: not shut, of a door, a grave, the eyes or a wound; not covered or roofed; open to entry; and, of a town, without walls (open burh for Latin “urbs patens”).[2][10] From “not concealed” it passed to “evident, public, well known”, often of something one would rather hide: a perjury or a murder that comes to light.[2][11] In the laws open marks a crime as proved beyond denial (open morð, open þīefþ), a suit as still undecided, and æt openum græfe a burial not yet finished.[12] In Beowulf the dragon finds the hoard opene standan, lying exposed.[10][13]

It continued as Middle English open, now English open.[14][7]

Timeline

  • s. ix med. – Byrgen open is “an open grave is” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.[8][3]
  • 890×897 – opene wunde “an open wound” in the Pastoral Care.[9][3]
  • s. x/xi – the hoard found opene standan in Beowulf.[15][13]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. open, not shut, of a door, gate, grave, the eyes or a wound.[2][10]
  2. not covered, unroofed; exposed to view.[2][10]
  3. not enclosed, of a town without walls.[10]
  4. evident, manifest, public, well known.[2][11]
  5. (law) of a crime: proved, undeniable; of a suit: not yet decided.[12][11]

Word family

  • openian
  • openlīċe
  • opennes

Descendants

  • Middle English open (→ Scots appen; Scots apen; English open)[1]
  • upp

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 763
  3. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
  4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 435
  5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 341
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. open
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  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. 329
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 675
  11. ^ 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. 268
  12. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 166
  13. ^ 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. open
  14. ^ 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)
  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. 344