sacu

Forms

sacu f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular sace, nominative plural saca)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *sakō (“lawsuit, quarrel”), a noun made from the strong verb *sakaną (“to charge”), whose Old English form is sacan.^[1][2][3] Its cognates are Old Norse sǫk (“lawsuit, charge”), Old Frisian seke, Old Saxon saka and Old High German sahha.^[2][3][4] Köbler also names Proto-Germanic *sakjō, which Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌾𐍉 (sakjō, “dispute”) continues, and traces both to the root Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to seek out”).^[5][1] Kroonen derives the verb from the same root and compares Old Irish saigid (“seeks to reach, claims”) and Latin sāgus (“prophetic”).^[6]

In the oblique cases the noun often has forms with ⟨sæc-⟩, which Klaeber refers to the related noun sæċċ.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Old English Orosius (Tollemache manuscript, s. x¹ or x²/⁴): Caligula complained þæt þær þa næs swelc sacu swelc þær oft ær wæs “that there was then no such strife as there often had been before”.^[9][10][11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is strife, dispute and sedition: in the Old English Genesis the quarrel between the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot is a sacu.^[11] In the poetry it is fighting and war: Beowulf has sacu restan “strife shall rest” between the Geats and the Danes.^[8] It also means affliction and persecution, and sin or guilt.^[11][7] In the laws it is a lawsuit or charge, and in the formula sacu and sōcn the right of holding a court together with its profits, the “sake and soke” of later legal language.^[12][7] LangScape records it in the charters in the sense “jurisdiction”.^[13]

The word lived on as Middle English sake “strife, dispute, legal action”, the source of sake in for the sake of.^[14][15]

Timeline

• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – næs swelc sacu in the Old English Orosius.^[9][10]
• s. x² – þis is singal sacu “this is endless strife” in Elene in the Vercelli Book.^[16][10]
• s. x/xi – sacu restan in the Beowulf manuscript.^[17][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. strife, contention, dispute; sedition.^[11][5]
2. fighting, war.^[8][18]
3. distress, affliction, persecution.^[11]
4. sin, fault.^[7]
5. (law) a lawsuit, charge; with sōcn, jurisdiction.^[12][18]

Word family

• saclēas
• woroldsacu

Descendants

• Middle English sake (→ English sake; Scots sak; Scots saik)^[1]

Related words

• sacan
• sæċċ
• sōcn

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 424
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 315
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 266
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sacu
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 423
7. ^ 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. 286
8. ^ a b c d 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. sacu
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. 249
10. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
11. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 807
12. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 187
13. ^ LangScape: The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside, King's College London, langscape.org.uk
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. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 704
17. ^ 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
18. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 165