scearp

Forms

sċearp (comparative sċearpre, superlative sċearpest)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *skarp, from Proto-Germanic *skarpaz (“sharp”).^[1][2] The adjective is found in Old Norse skarpr (“sharp, bitter, dried up”), Old Frisian skerp, Old Saxon skarp and Old High German scarp.^[2][3]

Kroonen explains it as an o-grade adjective made to the strong verb Proto-Germanic *skerpaną and compares Latvian skarbs (“sharp”).^[2] Orel too identifies it with the Latvian word, as a form of the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”) with a labial extension, and adds Middle Irish cerb (“sharp”).^[3] Köbler names the root *(s)kerbʰ- (“to cut”) or, as an alternative, *skremb- (“to twist, to shrink”),^[4] and Heidermanns gives “shrivelled, rough” as the meaning of the Germanic adjective.^[5]

The vowel is broken before ⟨r⟩ and a consonant.^[6] The adjective is one of the words spelled with the diphthong even in Northumbrian and the early Mercian glossaries, which otherwise often have a retracted vowel.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded from the mid-ninth century: the Vespasian Psalter gloss has Strele ðine scearpe “your sharp arrows” over the Latin “Sagittae tuae acutae” of Psalm 44.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

From the sense of an edge or point the word passed to tastes (sharp, acid, of vinegar and of a dock, Latin oxylapatium), to speech, to pain and hunger, to rough and steep roads, and to keen sight and a quick mind.^[9][10] In poetry it describes a warrior, scearp scyldwiga in Beowulf, where Klaeber glosses it “smart, acute”.^[11] In charter bounds it describes steep ground.^[12][13] The word lives on as sharp.^[10][14]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – Strele ðine scearpe “your sharp arrows” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[7][8]
• 890×897 – ðan scearpan ramman ðara costunga “the sharp battering ram of temptations” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[15][8]
• s. x med. – scearp of medicines and tastes in Bald's Leechbook.^[16][9]
• s. x/xi – scearp scyldwiga in the Beowulf manuscript.^[17][11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. sharp, with a fine edge or point.^[9][4]
2. sharp to the taste, pungent, acid.^[9]
3. sharp of speech; severe, of pain or hunger.^[9]
4. rough; steep, of roads and ground.^[9][12]
5. keen, active; keen of sight; shrewd, quick of mind.^[9][10]
6. (poetic) bold, brave.^[10][5]

Word family

• sċearplīċe
• sċearpian
• beadusċearp
• heaþusċearp

Descendants

• Middle English scharp (→ English sharp; Scots sharp; Scots scharp)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 440
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 335
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scearp
5. ^ a b Heidermanns, Frank (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. 487
6. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.29
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. 329
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 825
10. ^ 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. 292
11. ^ 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. scearp
12. ^ a b LangScape: The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside, King's College London, langscape.org.uk
13. ^ Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 112
14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ 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. 499
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. 412
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