Etymologically
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settan

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈset.tɑn/[1]

Forms

settan (weak class 1; third-person singular present sett, past singular sette, past plural setton)[1]

  • Northumbrian (Lindisfarne gloss) ġesetta, past ġesætte beside ġesette, participle ġeseted, ġesetted or ġesatted.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sattjan, from Proto-Germanic *satjaną (“to set, place”), from Proto-Indo-European *sodéyeti.[1][3] It is the causative of the verb for “to sit” (Old English sittan), a weak verb meaning “to make sit”.[4][5][6] Its cognates are Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (satjan), Old Norse setja, Old Frisian setta, Old Saxon settian and Old High German sezzen.[4][5][7] Orel compares Old Irish sáidim and Proto-Slavic *saditi (“to set, plant”).[5]

The double ⟨tt⟩ is the West Germanic gemination of a consonant before *j: the Proto-Germanic verb became Proto-West Germanic *[sattjan], just as *sitjaną gave the verb “to sit”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Vespasian Psalter gloss (s. ix med.), where settende in goldhordum neolnisse renders “ponens in thesauris abyssos”, “laying up the depths in storehouses” (Psalm 32:7).[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is to set, place or put a thing somewhere: God sets his rainbow in the clouds, a lamp is set under a vessel.[10] From it come “to appoint, institute, establish, found, build”, “to sow, plant” (it glosses Latin “serere” in the Lindisfarne Gospels), “to set down in writing, compose” and “to people or garrison a place”.[11][12][13] With of it means “to remove from office”: the Chronicle says that Stigand was put out of his bishopric.[12][11] It renders Latin “ponere”, “statuere”, “constituere” and “instituere”.[6]

It continued as Middle English setten, now English set.[1]

Timeline

  • s. ix med. – settende in goldhordum neolnisse in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.[8][9]
  • 890×897 – an iron wall to settanne betuh ðæm witgan & ðære byrig “to set between the prophet and the city” in the Pastoral Care.[14][9]
  • s. x³/⁴ – the Northumbrian forms ġesetta and ġesætte in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.[15][2]
  • s. x/xi – setton “they set” at line 325 in the Beowulf manuscript.[16][17]

Meanings

Verb

  1. to set, place, put.[10][6]
  2. to appoint, establish, found, build.[11][6]
  3. to sow, plant.[12][11]
  4. to set down in writing, compose.[12][11]
  5. to people, garrison.[12]

Word family

  • besettan
  • foresettan
  • forsettan
  • ġesettan
  • insettan
  • ofersettan
  • ofsettan
  • tōsettan
  • wiþsettan
  • ymbsettan

Descendants

  • Middle English setten (→ English set; Scots sett; Scots set)[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 358
  3. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 51
  4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 427
  5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 319
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. settan
  7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 291
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 867
  11. ^ a b c d e 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
  12. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 702
  13. ^ LangScape: The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside, King's College London, langscape.org.uk
  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. 499
  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. 291
  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. 344
  17. ^ 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. settan