sneare

Forms

sneare f (weak n-stem; genitive singular snearan, nominative plural snearan)^[1] Also snēare and snearu (Bosworth–Toller's headword).^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *snarhā, from Proto-Germanic *snarhǭ (“loop, sling, noose”).^[1][3] Köbler gives as cognates Old Norse snara (“noose, cord”), Old Saxon snarh (“string, cord”) and Old High German snaraha (“noose, cord”).^[4] The noun is traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *(s)nerk- (“to twist, to wind”), a root Köbler also gives;^[3] Wiktionary notes that this is disputed and that Orel treats the word as isolated and of unknown origin.^[1] Holthausen compares snēr (“harp string”) and sneorcan (“to shrivel”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both of the word's occurrences in the DOE Corpus are glosses to Aldhelm's prose De virginitate;^[6] the Brussels manuscript of that work has Old English glosses of the first half of the eleventh century.^[7] There snearan glosses Latin tendiculam and laqueum, a noose laid for hares or birds.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word meant a “noose” or “snare”.^[8][2] Middle English snare, recorded from about 1325 of a snare for birds, has two sources, this word and Old Norse;^[9] Etymonline also names a Norse source beside the Old English word.^[10] Holthausen likewise sets Old Norse snara beside the English noun.^[5]

Timeline

• s. xi¹ – snearan glossing Latin tendiculam in the glosses to Aldhelm.^[2][7][6]
• a. 1325 – Middle English snare in the glossed text of Walter of Bibbesworth.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. a noose, a snare for catching animals.^[2][8][3]

Descendants

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

Related words

• snēr

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 891
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. snéare
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *snarhō-
5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 304
6. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
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. 596
8. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 179
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com