sincan

Forms

sincan (strong class 3; third-person singular present sincþ, past singular sanc, past plural suncon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sinkwan (“to sink”), from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną.^[1][2] The strong verb is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌲𐌵𐌰𐌽 (sigqan), Old Norse søkkva, Old Frisian sinka, Old Saxon sinkan and Old High German sinkan.^[3][4][5] Old English keeps it in the third class of strong verbs.^[6][7]

Köbler traces it, with a query, to a root Proto-Indo-European *sengʷ- (“to fall, sink”) (Pokorny 906),^[4][2] and Holthausen compares Old Armenian անկանիմ (ankanim, “to fall”).^[5] Orel instead equates the Germanic verb with Proto-Slavic *sęgti (“to reach, grab”), pointing to the Slavic sense "to sink, settle" in a prefixed form of it.^[3] The weak causative sencan (“to sink, submerge”) is made from it.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in manuscripts of the second half of the tenth century.^[9][10] In Genesis A in the Junius manuscript, Noah tests after the Flood hwæðer sincende sæflod þa gyt wære under wolcnum, “whether the sinking sea-flood was still under the clouds”.^[9][11] In the tenth Vercelli homily the damned must sincan & swincan in ðam hatan hellebrogan, “sink and toil in the hot terror of hell”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is to go down in water or another medium; the Rushworth gloss renders Latin “cum coepisset mergi” (Matthew 14:30) with ða ingon sincan, “when he began to sink”.^[7] In the medical texts it is said of light food that passes easily through the body, acting as an aperient.^[7][12] The verb is rare: the DOE Corpus has 14 tokens of its own forms.^[11]

It lived on as Middle English synken, now English sink, and in Middle English its transitive use, "to make sink", pushed out the old causative sench.^[13]

Timeline

• s. x² – sincende sæflod “the sinking sea-flood” in Genesis A in the Junius manuscript.^[9][11]
• s. x² – the damned sincan & swincan in hell in the tenth Vercelli homily.^[10][11]
• s. xi in. – in three of Ælfric's Lives of Saints (Alban, George and the prayer of Moses) in Cotton Julius E. vii.^[14][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. to sink, go under, become submerged.^[7][4][12]
2. (medicine) of food, to be easily digestible, act as an aperient.^[7][12]

Word family

• āsincan
• besincan
• ġesincan

Descendants

• Middle English synken (→ English sink; Scots sink)^[1]

Related words

• sencan

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 325
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sincan
5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 294
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.57
7. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 875
8. ^ 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. sencan
9. ^ a b c 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
10. ^ a b c 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. 704
11. ^ a b c d e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
12. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 176
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 282