stede

Forms

stede m (strong i-stem; genitive singular stedes, nominative plural stedas)^[1]

• styde;^[2][3] Northumbrian styd, stydd and Rushworth steyde.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stadi, from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (“place”).^[1][4] The Germanic noun is Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌸𐍃 (staþs), Old Norse staðr, Old Frisian sted, Old Saxon stedi and Old High German stat.^[4][5][6] Kroonen gives the Old English word as feminine, while Bosworth and Toller and Klaeber have it masculine.^[4][2][7]

Orel relates it to Proto-Germanic *standaną (“to stand”) and matches it with Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis, “standing, station”) and Latin statim (“standing firm; at once”) and reconstructs a common Indo-European noun.^[5] Wiktionary gives that noun as Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂tis (“standing, position”) and analyses the Germanic word as Proto-Germanic *stāną with the suffix Proto-Germanic *-þiz.^[1] Köbler starts from the root Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[8] In Old English it is a light-stemmed masculine i-stem, like sleġe and siġe.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears first in the bounds of a charter of 811 by which Coenwulf of Mercia granted land in Kent to Archbishop Wulfred: the genitive elmes stedes “of the elm place” names a landmark.^[10][11] Its first single sheet is held to be the original; a copy of about 1000 has an interpolation.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a place or spot.^[2] From it come the place a thing or person occupies, a site or station, and figuratively a standing, status or office: Matthias was chosen on Iudan stede “in Judas's place”.^[2][12] The sense of standing still gives “firmness, stability”, and in medicine “strangury”, the stopping of the urine.^[3][13] The phrase of stede means “at once”.^[12] In the charters it is common in compound names of places and homesteads.^[14] Klaeber lists it once in Beowulf.^[7]

The word lived on as Middle English stede, now English stead, mostly in compounds and phrases; the sense “use, advantage” is Middle English.^[15]

Timeline

• 811 – elmes stedes in the bounds of a charter of Coenwulf, in a single sheet held to be the original.^[11][10]
• 890×897 – the place where stones were to stand in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[16][2]
• s. x³/⁴ – styd for Latin “locus” in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[17][10]
• s. x/xi – steda in the Beowulf manuscript, line 985.^[18][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. a place, spot, locality.^[2][8]
2. the place something occupies: a site, station, position.^[2][3]
3. standing, status; an office held, as in “in someone's place”.^[2][12]
4. firmness, stability, fixity.^[3][13]
5. (medicine) strangury.^[3][13]

Word family

• burgstede
• folcstede
• hāmstede
• hūsstede
• instede
• stedefæst
• þingstede
• wangstede

Descendants

• Middle English stede (→ English stead; Scots steid; Scots sted)^[1]

Related words

• standan

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 914
3. ^ a b c d e f Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 319
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 472
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 369
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ 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. stede
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stėde
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.57
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 c 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 168
12. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 711
13. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 183
14. ^ Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 125
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ 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
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. 291
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