setlan

Forms

setlan (weak class 1; third-person singular present setleþ, past singular setlde, past plural setldon)^[1]

Etymology

It is a verb made from Old English setl (“seat”), with the infinitive ending -an.^[1][2] Nerthus classes it as a zero-derived verb from setl, whose root is that of sittan (“to sit”).^[3] Holthausen compares the Dutch verb zetelen, and Etymonline compares German siedeln (“to settle”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only record is in The Whale in the Exeter Book (second half of the tenth century): seafarers moor their ships to the whale they take for an island and setlaþ sæmearas sundes æt ende “settle the sea-horses at the water's edge”.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give a transitive sense, "to settle, seat, put at rest", from The Whale, and an intransitive one, "to settle, come to rest", used of the sun setting, which they infer from the noun setlung and the Middle English forms.^[8] Clark Hall glosses "to settle (cause to sit), place, put".^[9]

In Middle English setlen meant to seat someone or be seated; the Ormulum speaks of the chief man att tatt bridale settledd “seated at that wedding”.^[10] From it comes English settle, which later took the senses of birds alighting and ground sinking.^[5]

Timeline

• s. x² – setlaþ sæmearas “settle the sea-horses (ships)” in The Whale, Exeter Book.^[6][7]
• c1175 – Middle English settledd “seated” in the Ormulum.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) to settle, seat, put at rest, place.^[8][9]
2. (intransitive) to come to rest; of the sun, to set.^[8][1]

Word family

• setlung

Descendants

• Middle English setlen (→ English settle)^[1]

Related words

• setl
• sittan
• settan

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. setlan
3. ^ Nerthus: An Online Lexical Database of Old English, Universidad de La Rioja, nerthusproject.com (derivational paradigms, via the Nerthus Project's open data)
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 291
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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. 223
7. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 867
9. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 304
10. ^ a b 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)