stearc

Forms

stearc^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stark,^[1] from Proto-Germanic *starkaz (“stiff, strong”).^[2][3][4] The adjective is shared with Old Frisian sterk, Old Saxon stark and Old High German stark, all meaning “strong”;^[2][5] Orel adds a Gothic adjective seen only in the personal name Starcedius.^[3]

Kroonen explains it as an o-grade adjective to a verbal root *sterg-, compared with Lithuanian strėgti (“to harden, congeal, freeze”);^[2] Orel derives it from a Germanic strong verb Proto-Germanic *sterkanan.^[3] Köbler places it with the wide group of Indo-European words for “stiff, rigid” under Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *ster-.^[6]

Old Norse sterkr (“strong”) has the same meaning, but Kroonen doubts that it can continue an ablaut form *sterka-, which would have given *stjarkr by breaking; he cites Magnússon's reconstruction of a u-stem instead.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Old English Boethius, in a manuscript of the mid-tenth century, where the one addressed is praised for stripping the trees of their leaves in autumn þurh þone stearcan wind norþan & eastan “through the harsh wind from the north and east”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller order the senses from the physical to the moral: stiff and rigid, not soft or bending; figuratively unyielding and obstinate, as in Elene, where people are called stearce, stane heardran “stubborn, harder than stone”; rough and strong, of wind and weather (the Latin “aspera hyems” is stearc winter in Ælfric's Colloquy); hard, of a way of life or of discipline; stern and severe, of a person (the Chronicle for 1086 calls King William swyðe stearc man); and strong, violent and vehement.^[9][8] Klaeber glosses it “strong, secure, unyielding” in Beowulf.^[10] In poetry it appears in Elene, Juliana, The Phoenix and the Meters of Boethius.^[8]

It lived on as Middle English stark, which kept spellings such as stearc in early south-west Midland texts, and is now English stark.^[11]

Timeline

• s. x med. – þone stearcan wind “the harsh wind” in the Old English Boethius (Cotton Otho A. vi).^[7][8]
• s. x² – Heo wæron stearce, stane heardran “they were stubborn, harder than stone” in Elene (Vercelli Book).^[12][8]
• s. x² – in Juliana and The Phoenix (Exeter Book).^[13][8]
• s. x ex. – mid stearcum stengum “with stiff poles” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[14][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. stiff, rigid, not bending.^[9][6]
2. (figurative) unyielding, obstinate.^[9][10]
3. rough, strong, of wind and weather.^[9]
4. hard, attended with hardship, of a way of life or discipline.^[9]
5. stern, severe, of a person.^[9][6]
6. strong, violent, vehement.^[9][6]

Word family

• stearcheort
• stearcheard
• stearcmōd
• stearclīċe

Descendants

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

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 474
3. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 372
4. ^ Heidermanns, Frank (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. 546
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stearc
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 e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 914
10. ^ 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. stearc
11. ^ 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)
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. 704
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. 223
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. 407