springan

Forms

springan (strong class 3; third-person singular present springþ, past singular sprang, past plural sprungon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (“to spring, jump up”).^[1] The strong verb is found across the old Germanic languages: Old Norse springa (“to burst, split”), Old Frisian springa, Old Saxon springan and Old High German springan (“to jump up”).^[2][3][4] Old English, Old Saxon and Old High German use it of a fluid that spurts out, while the Old Norse verb means to burst.^[5][2]

Köbler traces it to Proto-Indo-European *sprenǵʰ- (“to move, hurry, spring”), a nasalised form of the root also cited as *sperǵʰ-, and Wiktionary gives the same analysis.^[4][1] Holthausen compares Ancient Greek σπέρχω (spérkhō, “to hasten, rush”) and Sanskrit स्पृहयति (spṛháyati, “to be eager”), and Orel compares Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push in”).^[3][2] Holthausen sets the causative sprenġan beside it.^[3]

It is a strong verb of class III, with ⟨sprang⟩ in the past singular and ⟨sprungon⟩ in the plural.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the Old English Boethius, in a mid-tenth-century manuscript: þeah þu teo hwelcne boh ofdune to þære eorðan … swa þu hine alætst, swa sprincð he up “though you pull any bough down to the earth, as soon as you let it go it springs up”.^[7][8] Bosworth and Toller list the passage under a sense of their own, the movement of a spring.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller order the senses as leaping, bursting out (a liquid that spurts, sparks or a spear point that fly), growing as a plant does, rising as the sun does, springing back, and spreading as news or fame spreads.^[5] In Beowulf the blood spurts from the veins (swat ædrum sprong), and in the Battle of Maldon the spear point springs back from the shield.^[5][6] In the Fates of the Apostles and in Ælfric the sense is fame or faith that spreads far.^[9][8] In the glosses it renders Latin “exire” and “crebrescere”.^[4][5]

The verb lived on as Middle English spryngen, now English spring.^[1][10]

Timeline

• s. x med. – a bent bough that sprincð he up “springs up” in the Old English Boethius.^[7][8]
• s. x² – Lof wide sprang “praise spread far” in the Fates of the Apostles of the Vercelli Book.^[11][8]
• s. x³/⁴ – spranc for Latin “exiit”, of a report that spread, in the Lindisfarne gloss of Matthew.^[12][5]
• s. x ex. – the report spreads (ða sprang ðæt word) in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[13][5]
• s. x/xi – swat ædrum sprong “blood spurted from the veins” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][1]

Meanings

Verb

1. to leap, bound.^[5][15]
2. to burst forth; of a liquid, to spurt; of sparks and missiles, to fly.^[5][6]
3. to grow (of a plant).^[5][15]
4. to rise (of the sun).^[5]
5. to spring back, as a bent bough does.^[5][15]
6. to spread, be diffused (of fame or a report).^[5][15]

Word family

• āspringan
• ætspringan
• ġespringan
• onspringan
• tōspringan
• geondspringan
• spring

Descendants

• Middle English spryngen (→ English spring; English sprink; Scots spring)^[1]

Related words

• sprenġan

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 366
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 313
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. springan
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 905
6. ^ a b c 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. springan
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. 296
8. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 709
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ 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
12. ^ 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
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. 407
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. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 181