secgan

Forms

seċġan (third-person singular present sæġþ, past singular sæġde, past plural sæġdon)^[1] Also written secgean, secggan, secggean, sæcgan and seggan; the forms without umlaut (sagast, sagaþ, imperative saga) led to an infinitive sagian, under which Bosworth–Toller gives them.^[2][1] The preterite is sæġde, contracted sǣde, and the past participle sæġd, sǣd.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *saggjan, from Proto-Germanic *sagjaną (“to say”).^[1][4] The verb is shared with the other Germanic languages of the North and West: Old Norse segja, Old Frisian sedza, Old Saxon seggian and Old High German sagēn.^[4][5] Köbler sets up Proto-Germanic *sagjan beside a stative *sagēn, the type continued by the Old High German verb.^[6] Holthausen and Orel connect it with the noun sagu “saying, tale”.^[7][4]

Köbler derives the Germanic verb from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to notice, show, say”) (Pokorny 897).^[5] Wiktionary takes it either from an iterative Proto-Indo-European *sokʷéyeti or from a stative made to the same root.^[1]

In Old English it belongs to the third class of weak verbs, which had shrunk to this verb, habban, libban and hyċġan.^[3] The forms of the present that once had *-j- in the ending show i-umlaut and gemination (⟨secg-⟩), and those that had *-ai- do not (⟨sag-⟩); seċġan kept this alternation, which the other verbs of the class levelled.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded from the mid-ninth century: in the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, added in the middle of the ninth century, Secgende lofu dryhten & megen his & wundur his renders the Latin “Narrantes laudes domini et uirtutes eius et mirabilia eius” of Psalm 77, “telling the praises of the Lord and his might and his wonders”.^[9][10] In the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, 890×897) it introduces what someone means to say: ða he be ðæm wrohtgeornan secgean wolde, “when he wished to speak about the quarrelsome man”.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller order its uses by what is said: words quoted directly, a tale, poem or law recited (Ðá sǽde hé him sum bigspel, “then he told them a parable”), a report or account, and, of a word or text, what it means (ðæt segþ on Englisc, “that means in English”).^[2] With on it could mean to accuse a person or to ascribe something to someone.^[12][2] Köbler's glosses show it rendering a wide range of Latin verbs of speaking, among them “dicere”, “declarare”, “enuntiare” and “indicare”.^[5] It is common in prose and verse alike: in Beowulf it takes a direct object, a clause with þæt or an indirect question.^[13]

The verb continued as Middle English seien, with the variants seyen and seggen, and became English say.^[1]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – Secgende lofu dryhten “telling the praises of the Lord” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[9][10]
• 890×897 – secgean in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[11][10]
• s. x² – in the Vercelli and Exeter Books, among them Andreas and Juliana.^[14][15][10]
• s. x/xi – secgan with a direct object, a þæt-clause or an indirect question in the Beowulf manuscript.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. to say, to speak words, given directly or reported.^[2][5]
2. to tell a story, to recite a poem or prayer, to pronounce a law.^[2][12]
3. to tell of, mention, give an account of.^[2][1]
4. of a word or text: to mean, signify.^[2][12]
5. with on: to accuse; to attribute to.^[12][5]

Word family

• āseċġan
• beseċġan
• foreseċġan
• forseċġan
• ġeseċġan
• wiþseċġan
• efnseċġan
• unsæġd

Descendants

• Middle English seien (→ English say)^[1]

Related words

• sagu
• seċġa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 855
3. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.122
4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 311
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sėcgan
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 288
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.125
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. 329
10. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
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 d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 173
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. secgan
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. 223