sellan

Forms

sellan (third-person singular present seleþ, past singular sealde, past plural sealdon)^[1] Also siellan, sillan and syllan.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną (“to offer, hand over”).^[1][4] The verb is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (saljan), Old Norse selja (“to hand over; to sell”), Old Frisian sella (“to hand over; to pay; to sell”), Old Saxon gisellian (“to give, sell”) and Old High German sellen.^[4][5][3] Kroonen glosses the Gothic verb “to lodge”, Orel “to sacrifice”.^[4][5]

Kroonen explains it as a causative of Proto-Indo-European *selh₁- (“to take”), first “to let take”, and compares Ancient Greek ἑλεῖν (heleîn, “to take, seize”), Old Church Slavonic сълати (sŭlati, “to send”) and Old Irish selb (“possession”).^[4] Orel takes it as the causative of an unattested strong verb *selaną, and Köbler also connects the root “to take”.^[5][3] Wiktionary leaves open whether the causative was inherited from Proto-Indo-European or formed in Proto-Germanic.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is in a charter of 805×810, surviving as a single sheet of the ninth century: Ic Oswulf aldormonn mid Godes gæfe ond Beornðryð min gemecca sellað to Cantuarabyrg to Cristes cirican ðæt lond æt Stanhamstede “I, Ealdorman Oswulf, by the grace of God, and Beornthryth my wife give to Christ Church at Canterbury the land at Stanhamstede”.^[6] Parsons held the sheet genuine and contemporary, while Crick thought it drafted and written in the 840s.^[6] The Vespasian Psalter gloss, of the mid-ninth century, has Hwelc seleð ofer sion haelu israel for “Quis dabit ex Sion salutare Israhel”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller order the senses from giving something into another's possession: paying what is due, such as tribute; giving food, drink or medicine; giving one thing for another, that is selling; handing over or entrusting, also giving a woman in marriage; giving up; producing; and giving an answer, a pledge or an oath.^[2] In Beowulf it means “give”, and feorh seleð is “gives up his life”.^[9][2] The sense “sell” is found in Ælfric's Grammar, Ic sylle wið wirðe for “vendo”, and in the Gospels.^[2] It could also mean “betray”.^[3][1]

The verb lived on as Middle English sellen, which still meant “give” as well as “sell”,^[10] and in Chaucer it can still mean “give”; the verb is now English sell.^[11]

Timeline

• 805×810 – sellað in Oswulf's grant to Christ Church, Canterbury, on a ninth-century single sheet.^[6]
• s. ix med. – Willa ic gesellan in Lufu's grant to Christ Church, in a contemporary copy.^[12]
• s. ix med. – seleð for “dabit” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[7][8]
• 890×897 – the verb in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[13][8]
• s. x/xi – feorh seleð in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. to give, to hand something over into another's possession.^[2][9]
2. to give what is due: to pay tribute, to offer to God.^[2]
3. to give food, drink or medicine; to supply.^[2]
4. to give in exchange, to sell.^[2][3]
5. to hand over, entrust; to give a woman in marriage; to betray.^[2][3]
6. to give up, yield up;^[2] feorh sellan to die.^[2]
7. to give forth, produce.^[2]
8. to give an answer, a pledge or a promise;^[2][15] āþ sellan to swear an oath.^[2][15]

Word family

• āsellan
• besellan
• forsellan
• ġesellan
• sellend
• ymbsellan

Descendants

• Middle English sellen (→ English sell; Scots sell)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 861
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sellan
4. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 424
5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 316
6. ^ a b c The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1188
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 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. sellan
10. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1197
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. 499
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. 344
15. ^ a b Nerthus: An Online Lexical Database of Old English, Universidad de La Rioja, nerthusproject.com (derivational paradigms, via the Nerthus Project's open data), p. s.v. sellan