sadol

Forms

sadol m (strong a-stem; genitive singular sadoles, nominative plural sadolas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sadul, from Proto-Germanic *sadulaz (“saddle”).^[1] The noun is shared by the Germanic languages: Old Norse sǫðull, Old Frisian sadel, Old High German satul (also satal and satil), continued by Dutch zadel and German Sattel.^[2][3][4] Köbler gives the Old Saxon form only as a reconstruction, *sadul.^[5]

Its further origin is disputed.^[1] Kroonen takes it as an instrumental noun in Proto-Indo-European *-tlo- made to the verb Proto-Germanic *set(j)an- (“to sit”), like Old Saxon sethal (“seat”), and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *sod-tló-; on his account the ⟨-ul-⟩ of the Old Norse form is secondary.^[2] Orel finds the derivation from that verb hard to square with the sounds and thinks it probably an old loan from Slavic, from Proto-Slavic *sedъlo (“saddle”).^[3] Köbler connects it with the root Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”) and mentions the Slavic source as a possibility.^[5][6] Wiktionary also traces it to the root of the English word sit but calls the form unexplained, and finds a direct connection with Latin sella (“seat; saddle”) and the Slavic word formally difficult.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is in the oldest English glossary: the Épinal Glossary, written at the end of the seventh century or about 700, glosses Latin “sella” with sadol.^[7][8] The Erfurt Glossary has satul in the same gloss.^[9] The Corpus Glossary of the early ninth century repeats Sella sadol.^[10][8]

Semantic evolution

The word has only the one sense, the seat for a rider.^[11][12] In Beowulf, of eight horses led into the hall one carries a saddle that was the high king's hildesetl “battle seat”.^[11][13] The Old English Gregory's Dialogues tells of a man who used sheepskins in place of a saddle, rendering Latin “pro sella”.^[14] Beside it Old English had the compound sēamsadol “pack saddle”.^[11]

It lived on as Middle English sadel, now English saddle.^[15][16]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. or vii/viii – sella sadol in the Épinal Glossary.^[7][8]
• s. ix¹ – Sella sadol in the Corpus Glossary.^[10][8]
• s. x/xi – the high king's saddle in the Beowulf manuscript, line 1038.^[17][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. a saddle for riding, glossing Latin “sella”.^[11][5][18]

Word family

• sēamsadol
• sadolian

Descendants

• Middle English sadel (→ English saddle; Scots saddle; Scots saidle)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 419
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 311
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 266
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sadol
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ 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. 76
11. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 808
12. ^ 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
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. sadol
14. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 692
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 165