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stan

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Pronunciation

Forms

stān m (strong a-stem; genitive singular stānes, nominative plural stānas)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”).[1][2] The Proto-Germanic noun survives in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (stains), Old Norse steinn, Old Frisian stēn, Old Saxon stēn and Old High German stein.[3][4][5]

Kroonen explains it as a noun in *-no-* made to the root Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”), the root of Sanskrit स्त्यायते (styā́yate, “to coagulate”); outside Germanic the nearest forms are Proto-Slavic *stěna (“wall”) and Ancient Greek στῖον (stîon, “pebble”).[3] Orel, Holthausen and Köbler connect it with the same root and the same Slavic word.[4][5][6]

The ending was lost in prehistoric Old English, as in the other a-stems: *stainaz > *staina > *stain > stān.[7] Proto-Germanic /ai/ appears as ⟨ā⟩ here, beside the ⟨ē⟩ of the Old Frisian and Old Saxon forms and the ⟨ei⟩ of the Old High German one.[2] Ringe and Taylor count the change of /ai/ to ā among the earliest that set Old English apart from the other West Germanic dialects.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded from the mid-ninth century: the Old English interlinear gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, added in the middle of the ninth century, has stan deorwyrðne “precious stone” over the Latin “lapidem pretiosum” of Psalm 18.[9][10] The bounds of a charter of King Æthelwulf of Wessex dated 846 run “on dene waldes stan”, to a stone that marked the boundary; its single-sheet copy is of the mid-ninth century, held to be contemporary by some scholars and doubtful by others.[11] Bosworth and Toller note that boundary stones are named often in the charters.[12]

Semantic evolution

In the Old English texts the word covers stone as a material, a single stone, a building stone and a stone set up as a mark, and also rock and cliff: in Beowulf the dragon's lair lies under hārne stān “under the grey rock”.[12][13] It also names a precious stone, a stone in the bladder (in the medical texts) and a stone that holds metal.[12] In the laws and Wulfstan's homilies it is the stone to which heathen worship is paid, named beside wells and trees.[12][14]

The word lived on as Middle English ston, now English stone.[15][16]

Timeline

  • 846 – a boundary stone in the bounds of Æthelwulf's charter for land at South Hams, Devon.[11]
  • s. ix med. – stan deorwyrðne “precious stone” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.[9][10]
  • 890×897 – Jacob's stone at his head in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).[17][10]
  • s. x/xi – under hārne stān in the Beowulf manuscript.[18][13]
  • c. 1000 – stones that hide fire in Ælfric's Hexameron.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. stone as a material.[12][6]
  2. a single stone; a stone for building; a stone set up as a boundary mark.[12]
  3. rock, a rock or cliff.[12][19]
  4. a precious stone, a gem.[12]
  5. (medicine) a stone in the bladder.[12]

Word family

  • stāniġ
  • stǣnen
  • stānweall
  • stānweorc
  • ġimstān
  • mylenstān
  • hwetstān
  • mǣrstān

Descendants

  • Middle English ston (→ English stone; Scots stane)[1]
  • stǣner

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. 45
  3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 472
  4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 369
  5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 316
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stān
  7. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 3.31
  8. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 175
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 298
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 910
  13. ^ a b 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. stān
  14. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 201
  15. ^ 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)
  16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  17. ^ 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
  18. ^ 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
  19. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 182