scrifan

Forms

sċrīfan (strong class 1; third-person singular present sċrīfþ, past singular sċrāf, past plural sċrifon)^[1]

Etymology

It is an early loan from Latin through continental West Germanic: inherited from Proto-West Germanic *skrīban, borrowed from Latin scrībō (“to write”).^[1][2][3] Holthausen and Klaeber derive it from the Latin verb.^[4][5] The same borrowing gave Old Frisian skrīva, Old Dutch scrīvan, Old Saxon skrīvan and Old High German scrīban, all “to write”.^[6][1]

It is a strong verb of the first class, like rīdan and wrītan.^[6] Durkin notes that nothing in its form points to a very early borrowing, but that the strong cognates in the other West Germanic languages make one loan into continental Germanic more likely than separate loans in each.^[6][3] Ringe and Taylor call it the only Germanic strong verb likely to have been taken from a non-Germanic language.^[2]

Orel doubts the loan: he thinks the Germanic verb was at most influenced in meaning by Latin, and leaves its origin unknown.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Pastoral Care in Hatton 20, written 890×897, in the sense “to care, heed”: sinners abandoned the bridle of fear ða hi ne scrifon hwæðer hit wære ðe dæg ðe niht, “when they did not care whether it was day or night”.^[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

The meaning in Old English is not “to write”: Ringe and Taylor connect this with wrītan having become the usual verb for writing.^[2] Bosworth and Toller order its senses as decreeing a lot to someone, fixing a lot for someone, adjudging or imposing a sentence, the church sense of hearing confession and imposing penance, and caring or having regard for something.^[10] The poems use it of God and fate: in Christ the Creator scrifeð bi gewyrhtum, “decrees according to deeds”, and in Beowulf one stained with crime must wait hu him Metod scrifan wille, how the Lord will judge him.^[10][5] In the laws a bishop or confessor imposes penance on the offender.^[11][10]

Through Middle English it became English shrive.^[12]

Timeline

• 890×897 – ne scrifon “did not care” in the Pastoral Care.^[8][9]
• s. x² – scrifeð bi gewyrhtum in Christ in the Exeter Book.^[13][9]
• s. x² – in two Vercelli homilies.^[14][9]
• s. x/xi – hu him Metod scrifan wille in the Beowulf manuscript.^[15][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. to decree, appoint, allot, assign.^[10][16]
2. to adjudge, impose a sentence or penalty.^[10][5]
3. (church) to shrive, hear confession and impose penance.^[10][11]
4. to care for, have regard to (with the genitive or dative).^[10]

Word family

• forsċrīfan
• ġesċrīfan

Descendants

• Middle English schryven (→ English shrive; Middle Scots schrife; Middle Scots schrive)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 137
3. ^ a b Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 142
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 283
5. ^ a b c d 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. scrīfan
6. ^ a b c Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 141
7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 344
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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. 841
11. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 191
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 704
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. 344
16. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scrīfan