seofon

Forms

seofon^[1] Also written syfon, seofun, siofun, sufon, and in Northumbrian seofo, siofu; the West Saxon Pastoral Care has siofan.^[1][2][3] Before a noun it is not inflected; used on its own it takes nominative and accusative seofone, genitive seofona, dative seofonum.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sebun, from Proto-Germanic *sebun (“seven”).^[1][6] The numeral is common Germanic: Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌽 (sibun), Old Norse sjau, Old Frisian sigun, Old Saxon sibun and Old High German sibun.^[6][7]

It continues the Indo-European numeral Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥ (“seven”), the source also of Latin septem, Ancient Greek ἑπτά (heptá), Sanskrit सप्त (saptá), Old Irish secht and Proto-Slavic *sedmь.^[7][8][1] The Germanic form lacks the ⟨t⟩ of the other languages, which points to *sepm̥.^[6] Kroonen thinks the dental was lost by dissimilation in the ordinal, before the ⟨t⟩ of the suffix, and spread from there; he finds this more likely than the view that the Germanic word is a late loan from a para-Semitic language.^[6]

The Old English ⟨eo⟩ is the u-umlaut of ⟨e⟩ before the ⟨u⟩ of the next syllable, found with ⟨syfon⟩ in early and late West Saxon alike.^[9] The rare sufon developed from seofon after /s/.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The numeral is recorded in the 890s: the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, 890×897) quotes David on ðæm siofan & hundsiofantiogoðan psalme, “in the seventy-seventh psalm”, where it is part of an ordinal.^[11][3][5] As a cardinal it appears in the Parker Chronicle (CCCC 173, written from about 900) under 891: hi namon mid him þæt hi hæfdun to seofon nihtum mete, “they took with them enough food for seven nights”.^[12][3]

Semantic evolution

The word is the cardinal number seven, used before a noun or on its own: the seven brothers of the Gospel, the seven good years of Genesis, seofona sum “one of seven” in Andreas.^[4] It also forms compound numbers and ordinals, gives a person's age, and names the number itself in reckoning (Twía seofon beóð feówertýne, “twice seven are fourteen”).^[5]

The numeral lived on as Middle English seven, with spellings such as seofen and sevene, and is now English seven.^[1]

Timeline

• 890×897 – siofan & hundsiofantiogoðan “seventy-seventh” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[11][3]
• s. ix/x – to seofon nihtum “for seven nights” in the Parker Chronicle, annal 891.^[12][3]
• s. x³/⁴ – the Northumbrian forms seofo, seofona and seofu in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[13][2]
• s. x/xi – seofan and syfone in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][15]

Meanings

Numeral

1. seven.^[4][16][8]

Word family

• seofoþa
• seofonfeald
• hundseofontiġ
• seofonniht

Descendants

• Middle English seven (→ English seven; Middle Scots sevin; Middle Scots sewin)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 863
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 701
6. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 429
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 321
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. seofon
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.104
10. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.207
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 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. 83
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. 291
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. ^ Klaeber, Fr., ed. (1922), Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, Boston: D. C. Heath
16. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 303