pic

Forms

piċ or pic n (strong a-stem; genitive singular piċes, nominative plural -)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pix (“pitch”) (stem ⟨pic-⟩),^[1][2][3] an early loan: Wiktionary sets up Proto-West Germanic *pik for West Germanic,^[1] and the word appears as Old Saxon pik, Old Frisian pik, Old High German peh and Old Norse bik.^[4][5] Durkin cites it, with disċ “dish”, as a loan that does not show the Vulgar Latin lowering of short /i/ to /e/, and so as probably older than peru “pear”, which does.^[6] The ⟨c⟩ was palatalised after the front vowel, giving the pronunciation /pitʃ/ beside /pik/.^[1]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *pik- and Proto-Indo-European *pik- (“pitch”), with cognates in Ancient Greek πίσσα (píssa) and Lithuanian pìkis.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is in the oldest English glossary: the Épinal Glossary, written about 700, glosses pix picis with pic.^[8][9] The Corpus Glossary's piic, glossing acisculum, is another word, pīc “pointed tool, pick”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The Old English uses are those of the substance: Ælfric's Grammar glosses Latin pix with it, the medical texts use hluttor pic “clear pitch”, that is resin, and the Old English Exodus has Moses' basket smeared mid tyrwan & mid pice “with tar and with pitch”.^[10][11] Boiling pitch is a torment of the martyrs and of hell: a saint is sprinkled with it in Ælfric's Lives of Saints, and the wretched in hell suffer weallendes pices wean “the woe of boiling pitch” in Judgement Day II.^[3][11]

The word became Middle English pich, also written pik and picke, whose etymology the MED gives as Old English pic together with Latin and French; it is now English pitch.^[12][1]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. – pic glossing Latin pix in the Épinal Glossary.^[8][9]
• s. x med. – hluttor pic “clear pitch” in a remedy of Bald's Leechbook.^[13][11]
• s. x/xi – pitch in the Old English Martyrology.^[14][15]
• s. xi in. – a saint sprinkled mid pice in Ælfric's Lives of Saints.^[16][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. pitch, tar.^[10][17][4]
2. hlūttor piċ “clear pitch”, resin.^[10][18]

Descendants

• Middle English pik (→ English pitch; Scots pick)^[1]

Usage notes

Bosworth–Toller's page pic also holds pīc “point, pointed instrument, pike”, a masculine noun with a long vowel, which is a different word.^[10][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 109
3. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 679
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. pic
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 151
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. 610
9. ^ a b Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. no. 820
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. 773
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. ^ 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)
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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. 281
15. ^ Rauer, Christine, ed. (2013), The Old English Martyrology: Edition, Translation and Commentary, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer (glossary), p. s.v. pic
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. 282
17. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 272
18. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 158
19. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. pīc