scafan

Forms

sċafan (strong class 6; third-person singular present sċæfþ, past singular sċōf, past plural sċōfon)^[1] Bosworth–Toller, Holthausen and Köbler head it sceafan.^[2][3][4] scaebe in the Corpus Glossary.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *skaban, from Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to shave, scrape”).^[1] The verb is Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (skaban), Old Norse skafa, Old Saxon skavan and Old High German skaban in the other old Germanic languages.^[6][3][7]

Köbler refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *skab- (“to cut, split, carve”).^[4] Holthausen compares Latin scabō (“to scratch”) and Baltic and Slavic words for scraping and cutting;^[3][6] Orel compares Ancient Greek σκάπτω (skáptō, “to dig”) and Lithuanian and Slavic verbs meaning “to cut” and “to castrate”.^[3][6]

It is a strong verb of the sixth class.^[8] Ringe and Taylor derive the third person singular ⟨sċæfþ⟩ from Proto-Germanic *skabidi.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a gloss in the Corpus Glossary, of the first half of the ninth century: Poleo scaebe, the verb rendering Latin “polio” (I polish).^[10][11][2] The Old English Bede, in a manuscript of the early tenth or the first half of the eleventh century, tells how people scof þara boca leaf, þe of Hibernia coman, “scraped the leaves of the books that came from Ireland”, and gave the scrapings in water to those bitten by snakes.^[12][11][2]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give “to shave, scrape, shred, polish”.^[2] Its uses are practical: scraping parchment or holy wood into water as a remedy, shaving a goat's horn for medicine, and the Benedictine Rule's warning against scraping off rust too zealously.^[2] Ælfric's life of Oswald has the priest who scof on halig wæter of þam halgan treowe, “scraped some of the holy wood into holy water”.^[13][11]

Its Middle English form shaven meant both “to scrape” and “to shave”; it is now English shave.^[14][15]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – Poleo scaebe in the Corpus Glossary.^[10][11]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – scof þara boca leaf in the Old English Bede.^[12][11]
• s. xi in. – scof on halig wæter in Ælfric's life of Oswald.^[13][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. to shave.^[2][1]
2. to scrape, shred.^[2][16]
3. to polish, make smooth.^[2][4]

Word family

• āsċafan

Descendants

• Middle English shaven (→ English shave)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 821
3. ^ a b c d Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 272
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sceafan
5. ^ Lindsay, W. M., ed. (1921), The Corpus Glossary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. s.v. scaebe
6. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 330
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.68
9. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 233
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 e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
12. ^ 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. 531
13. ^ 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. 282
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. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 168