sand

sand¹ sending, message

Pronunciation

• /sɑnd/^[1]

Forms

sand f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular sande, nominative plural sanda)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a sending is inherited from Proto-Germanic *sandō (“a sending, mission”), a noun made to *sandijaną (“to send”).^[1] Holthausen and Köbler connect it with the verb sendan, and Holthausen gives Old High German santa as its Old High German counterpart.^[2][3] Bosworth and Toller compare Latin mittō (“to send”) for the sense dish of food.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Épinal Glossary, of the late seventh century or about 700, where sandae glosses the Latin “commeatos” (supplies, provisions).^[5][6] The Corpus Glossary, of the early ninth century, has the same gloss as sonde.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth–Toller divides the word into a sending, mission or message, and a dish of food or victuals.^[4] In Ælfric's homilies Gregory turned the English from the worship of devils þurh his ræd and sande, “through his counsel and mission”, and God's sending of his Son is seo wurðfulle sand.^[4] Bosworth–Toller files under a separate masculine the messenger or envoy: a messenger from Christ Church in a charter, day as the Lord's messenger in the Rune Poem, and the Pope's legate in the Chronicle for 1095, while noting that these may be the feminine noun used of a person.^[4] As food it renders “dapes”, “fercula”, “obsonia” and “pulmentaria” in glosses, and Ælfric uses it of the food Habakkuk was told to carry to Babylon.^[4][8]

It lived on as Middle English sonde, “message”, with sondes mon “messenger”.^[4][1]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. or vii/viii – commeatos sandae in the Épinal Glossary.^[5][6]
• s. ix¹ – Commeatos sonde in the Corpus Glossary.^[7][6]
• s. x ex. – seo wurðfulle sand “the glorious sending” and the meal carried by Habakkuk in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[9][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. a sending, mission, message.^[4][10]
2. a messenger, envoy.^[4][11]
3. a course or dish of food, a mess; victuals.^[4][10]

Word family

• onsand
• flǣsċsand

Descendants

• Middle English sonde (→ English saind; English send; Middle Scots send)^[1]

sand² sand, gravel

Pronunciation

• /sɑnd/^[1]

Forms

sand n (strong a-stem; genitive singular sandes)^[1]

Etymology

The word for sand is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz (“sand”).^[1][12] It is found in all the North and West Germanic languages: Old Norse sandr, Old Frisian sand, Old Saxon sand and Old High German sant.^[12][3] Gothic uses a different word, Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌻𐌼𐌰 (malma).^[13]

Most of the forms would fit a stem with ⟨nd⟩, but Kroonen takes the by-form Middle High German sampt to show an older ⟨md⟩, which is close to Ancient Greek ἄμαθος (ámathos, “sand”) and ψάμμος (psámmos).^[12] Since Latin sabulum (“coarse sand, gravel”) cannot be reconciled with these forms either, he concludes that the word was taken by Germanic, Italic and Greek from a non-Indo-European language of western Europe.^[12] Ringe, as Wiktionary reports, reconstructs instead a pre-form Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos, which the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture considers impossible.^[1] Köbler connects it with *bʰes- (“to rub off, grind”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, of the mid-ninth century, where swe swe sond sæs “like the sand of the sea” renders the Latin “sicut harena maris” of Psalm 77.^[14][6]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth–Toller gives the senses sand or gravel, which glosses “glarea”, “arena” and “sablo”, and sand by the sea, the shore.^[4] The Old English Orosius tells of a river that runs east on þæt sond and sinks into it.^[15][6] In the poems it is mostly the shore: in Beowulf the ships lie on sande.^[4][16] It is common in the field names of the charters, such as sandford and sand pytt.^[17]

The word lived on as Middle English sond, now English sand.^[18][1]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – swe swe sond sæs “like the sand of the sea” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[14][6]
• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – on þæt sond “into the sand” in the Old English Orosius.^[15][6]
• s. x med. – swa swa sigende sond þone ren swylgð “as sinking sand swallows the rain” in the Old English Boethius.^[19][6]
• s. x/xi – the shore in the Beowulf manuscript.^[20][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. sand, gravel.^[4][3]
2. sand by the sea; the sandy shore, beach.^[4][16]

Word family

• sandiġ
• sandċeosol
• sandhyll
• sandcorn
• sandpytt
• eolhsand

Descendants

• Middle English sond (→ English sand; Middle Scots sand)^[1]