rot

Forms

rōt (comparative rōtra, superlative rōtost)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *rōtaz (“glad”), an adjective that Orel and Kroonen find only in Old English among the Germanic languages.^[2][3] Both equate it with Proto-Slavic *radъ (“glad, willing”), and Kroonen takes the pair as a word shared only by Slavic and Germanic, going back to Proto-Indo-European *HroHdo-.^[2][3] Köbler gives the root, with a query, as Pokorny's *rēd- “to cheer”.^[4] The causative rētan (“to gladden”) was formed from the adjective.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is the comparative in a Vercelli homily on pride, in a manuscript of the second half of the tenth century: þonne se mann wenð & teleð hyne sylfne rottran þonne oðerne “then the man thinks and reckons himself better than another”.^[6][7] In the same period the Riming Poem in the Exeter Book has the sense “glad”: Ðǽr moncyn mót for Meotude rót sóðne God geseón “there mankind may, glad before the Creator, see the true God”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give two senses, glad or cheerful, and noble or excellent.^[8] The second is the sense of Ælfric's comparatives and superlatives: the good man becomes rottra “better” and nearer to God the more he is tried, and man is the rōtost of all creatures.^[8][7] The Chronicle annal for 1052 uses rótoste of the best men in England.^[10] Its negative unrōt (“sad”) glosses Latin “maestus” and “tristis”.^[11]

Timeline

• s. x² – rottran “better” in a Vercelli homily.^[6][7]
• s. x² – rót “glad” in the Riming Poem in the Exeter Book.^[9][8]
• s. x ex. – swa he rottra bið and near gode in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[12][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. glad, cheerful.^[8][13][4]
2. noble, excellent, good.^[8][14]

Word family

• unrōt
• rōtlīċe
• rōtnes
• unrōtnes
• rōthwīl
• rētan
• ārētan

Usage notes

Two other words share the spelling: rōt “root”, a loan from Old Norse,^[15][4] and rot, a spelling of hrot (“scum”).^[8][14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 416
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 307
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. rōt
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. rœ̄tan
6. ^ 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. 704
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 802
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. 223
10. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 690
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. unrōt
12. ^ 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. 407
13. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 284
14. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 164
15. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 181