scieran

Forms

sċieran (strong class 4; third-person singular present sċiereþ, past singular sċear, past plural sċēaron)^[1] Non-West Saxon sċeran beside West Saxon sċieran;^[2] Bosworth–Toller and Sweet head the word sceran.^[3][4] sċeoran in Andreas and sċyran in later texts.^[3][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *skeran, from Proto-Germanic *skeraną (“to cut”).^[1][6] The strong verb is shared by Old Norse skera, Old Frisian skera and Old High German sceran.^[6][7][8]

Kroonen calls it a verb of European distribution, from Proto-Indo-European *skérH-e-, and compares Lithuanian skìrti (“to cut”), Old Irish scaraid (“to divide, separate”) and an Armenian verb “to scratch”.^[6] Orel adds Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “to cut, shear”).^[7] Köbler and Wiktionary give the root as Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”).^[9][1]

The ⟨ie⟩ of West Saxon is due to the diphthongisation of /e/ after the palatal /sk/.^[10] The verb belongs to the fourth strong class.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is the Pastoral Care in Hatton 20, written 890×897, which recalls the command to Ezekiel that priests ne scoldon no hiera heafdu scieran mid scierseaxum “were not to shave their heads with razors”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

In poetry the verb means to cut or hew: in Beowulf the sword swīn ofer helme scireð “shears the boar on the helmet”, and in Andreas the hero's enemies are urged to let the iron ealdorgeard sceoran “cut the life-enclosure”.^[3][13] In prose it is used for shaving the head or beard, for cutting the hair, and for shearing sheep; Ælfric's Grammar glosses it with Latin “tondeo” and “rado”.^[3] The estate duties of the Gerefa include sceap scyran.^[14] The past participle scoren also means “steep, abrupt”, as in the Pastoral Care's scorene clif.^[3]

The verb lived on as Middle English sheren, now English shear.^[15]

Timeline

• 890×897 – heafdu scieran “to shave heads” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[11][12]
• s. x² – ealdorgeard sceoran in Andreas in the Vercelli Book.^[16][12]
• s. x/xi – scireð of a sword in the Beowulf manuscript.^[17][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. to cut, hew, cleave.^[3][9]
2. to shave the head or beard.^[3]
3. to cut the hair.^[3]
4. to shear sheep.^[3][14]

Word family

• besċieran
• āsċieran
• ġesċieran
• sċierseax
• sċiering
• unsċoren

Descendants

• Middle English scheren (→ English shear; Scots shear)^[1]

Related words

• sċēar
• sċearu
• sċeard

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 742
3. ^ 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. 830
4. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 169
5. ^ North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary)
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 443
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 338
8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 278
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scieran
10. ^ Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 185
11. ^ 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. 499
12. ^ 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
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. sceran
14. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 190
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 704
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