segl

Forms

seġl n or m (strong a-stem; genitive singular seġles, nominative plural seġlu)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *segl, from Proto-Germanic *seglą (“sail, canvas”).^[1][2] The noun is shared with Old Norse segl, Old Frisian seil, Old Saxon segal and Old High German segal.^[2][3][4] Old Irish séol (“sail”) and Welsh hwyl (“sail”) are either cognates or, as is often assumed, loans from Germanic.^[2]

Kroonen finds no certain etymology.^[2] Starting from “a cut piece of cloth”, the word can be joined to the root Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”), as Köbler does;^[2][4][3] Holthausen compares Old Norse sǫgr (“torn-off piece, strip”) and seax.^[2][4][3] Kroonen prefers a link with an obsolete Lithuanian word for a shawl, and also mentions an Icelandic word for a piece of wood in a mill, which would point to an original sense “mast”.^[2]

The early glosses also show a form with a vowel inserted before the ⟨l⟩, ⟨segil-⟩, as in the Épinal and Erfurt glosses.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the Old English Orosius, in a manuscript of the first half of the tenth century, in Wulfstan's account of his voyage to Truso: þæt þæt scip wæs ealne weg yrnende under segle “that the ship was running all the way under sail”.^[7][8] The Old English Bede, in a manuscript of the early tenth or the early eleventh century, has a storm in which the travellers could make no way ne mid segle ne mid rownesse “neither with sail nor with rowing”.^[9][8] The word is older than these records as the first element of a compound: the Épinal Glossary, of the late seventh century, glosses Latin “antemna” “sailyard” with segilgaerd.^[10][6][8]

Semantic evolution

The common sense is a ship's sail, and the glossaries name its kinds: the largest sail, the middle one and the smallest.^[11] In the Boethius a man who spreads his sail against the wind leaves his journey to the wind's power.^[11] In Beowulf the sail is tied to the mast with a rope (segl sale fæst).^[12][11]

The poem Exodus uses the word for the pillar of cloud and fire that led the Israelites, seen as a sail over the host.^[11][13] In the Christ it is the veil of the Temple, and in the glosses it renders Latin “velum”, a curtain, and “labarum”, a standard.^[11][14][4]

The word lived on as Middle English seyl, now English sail.^[1][13]

Timeline

• s. x¹ – the ship running under segle in Wulfstan's voyage in the Old English Orosius.^[7][8]
• s. x med. – a ship's sail spread against the wind in the Old English Boethius.^[15][11]
• s. x² – halige seglas, the pillar of cloud, in the Exodus of the Junius manuscript.^[16][11]
• s. x² – the veil of the Temple in the Christ of the Exeter Book.^[17][11]
• s. x/xi – segl sale fæst in the Beowulf manuscript.^[18][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a sail.^[11][19][12]
2. (poetic) the pillar of cloud or fire in Exodus.^[11][13]
3. a veil, curtain.^[11][4]
4. (glosses) a banner, standard.^[11]

Word family

• seġlian
• seġlgyrd
• seġlrōd
• oferseġl

Descendants

• Middle English seyl (→ English sail; Scots sail; Scots saill)^[1]

Usage notes

The spelling segl is also used for sigel “sun; brooch”, a word of another origin.^[20] The form swegl of the sail in Exodus coincides with swegl “sky, heaven”.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 430
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 288
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. segl
5. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 6.39
6. ^ a b Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 67
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. 249
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. ^ 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. 531
10. ^ 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. 610
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 856
12. ^ a b c 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. seġl
13. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 301
14. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 701
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. 296
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. 513
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. 223
18. ^ 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
19. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 173
20. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sigel