sceadan

Forms

sċeādan or sċēadan (strong class 7; third-person singular present sċēatt, past singular sċēd, past plural sċēdon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþan, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþaną (“to separate”).^[1] Its cognates are Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (skaidan, “to separate, divide”), Old Frisian skētha, Old Saxon skēthan and Old High German skeidan (whence German scheiden).^[2][3][1]

Orel derives the Germanic verb from the zero grade of a t-extended root Proto-Indo-European *skẽi-t-, and Wiktionary from the o-grade of a t-extension of Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to split, dissect”).^[2][1] Köbler gives Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *skē̆it- (“to cut, separate”) and *skē̆i-.^[4]

It is a reduplicating verb of the seventh class, with ⟨ē⟩ in the past.^[5][6] Bosworth and Toller and Wiktionary also give the spelling sċādan.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in the bounds of a grant of King Æthelberht of Wessex and Kent of 862, of land at Bromley in Kent: cregsetna haga an easthalfe sced hit to liowsan dene “the hedge of the Cregsætan on the east side bounds it as far as Liowsan dene”.^[7][8] The single sheet is of the later ninth century; it was once held to be a later imitation, but Campbell and Brooks take it for a ninth-century copy.^[7] Bald's Leechbook (s. x med.) has the word of scattering a powder: Þæt mela bið god on to sceadenne “the meal is good to sprinkle on”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller divide a transitive use, to separate or divide, to distinguish or decide, and to scatter or shed, from an intransitive one, to part, to differ and to be scattered.^[5] The sense “to form a boundary” is common in the charter bounds, where a stream or a hedge divides one estate from another.^[10][11] The Leechbook uses it of sprinkling seed or meal, and the Ruin of the roof parting from its tiles.^[5] In the glosses it renders Latin “separare” and “discriminare”, and the Northumbrian Lindisfarne gloss has it for “separare” of separating people.^[4][11]

It lived on as Middle English sheden, which the MED records in the senses to divide, to separate and to single out; it is now English shed.^[12][1]

Timeline

• 862 – sced hit “bounds it” in the bounds of a grant at Bromley, Kent, in a single sheet of s. ix².^[7][8]
• s. x med. – on to sceadenne “to sprinkle on” in Bald's Leechbook.^[9][8]
• s. x² – Tigelum sceádeþ hróstbeáges hróf in The Ruin in the Exeter Book.^[13][5]
• s. x³/⁴ – sceádas for “separauerint” in the Lindisfarne gloss of Luke.^[14][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. to separate, divide; to form a boundary between.^[5][10]
2. to distinguish, decide.^[5][4]
3. to scatter, sprinkle, shed (blood).^[5][15]
4. (intransitive) to part; to differ; to be scattered.^[5][15]

Word family

• āsċēadan
• besċēadan
• forsċēadan
• ġesċēadan
• ofersċēadan
• ofsċēadan
• tōsċēadan

Descendants

• Middle English sheden (→ English shed; Scots sched; Scots scheid)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 331
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scéadan
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 820
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.76
7. ^ a b c The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 331
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. ^ 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. 412
10. ^ a b LangScape: The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside, King's College London, langscape.org.uk
11. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 694
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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. 291
15. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 167