Etymologically
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stefn

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Pronunciation

  • /stefn/, [stevn][1]

Forms

stefn f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular stefne, nominative plural stefna)[1] Bosworth–Toller lists stefn, stæfn and stemn.[2] Stemn, with /fn/ assimilated to /mn/, is West Saxon, and is also found in the Rushworth gloss.[3][4] A glossary spells it stebn.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stebnu, from Proto-Germanic *stebnō (“voice”).[1][5] It has cognates in Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌱𐌽𐌰 (stibna), Old Frisian stifne, Old Saxon stemna and Old High German stimna.[5][6][7]

Feist and Lehmann take the Gothic -bn- and the Old English and Old Frisian -fn- back to an older *-mn-, kept in the Old Saxon and Old High German forms (perhaps by levelling from the oblique cases) and assimilated to -mm- in stemme and stimma.[6][8] Hogg and Campbell, by contrast, treat the West Saxon spelling stemn as a later assimilation of /fn/ to /mn/.[3][4]

Orel calls the word of unknown origin.[5] Feist, and Lehmann with caution, connect it with Avestan staman- (“muzzle of a dog”), Ancient Greek στόμα (stóma, “mouth”) and Welsh safn (“jaw”), the sense moving from the organ of speech to the voice;[6][8] Lehmann notes that others reject the comparison.[6][8] Wiktionary derives the Proto-Germanic noun from Proto-Indo-European *stemn- (“mouth”).[1] Köbler gives Proto-Indo-European *stemnā (“mouth, voice”) with a question mark.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded from the mid-ninth century: the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter has stefne minre to dryhten ic cleopede “with my voice I cried to the Lord” over the Latin “voce mea ad dominum clamavi” of Psalm 3.[10][11] The Pastoral Care of 890×897 speaks of ða suigendan stefne “the silent voice” that the hidden Judge heard.[12][11]

Semantic evolution

The noun names the voice of a person, of God from heaven, and of a trumpet, and any sound made by the mouth; Ælfric's Grammar distinguishes the articulate voice of speech from the inarticulate sounds of animals and trees.[2] Ælfric also uses it as a grammatical term, for a form that marks a relation, as of the pronouns.[2] It is common in poetry and in the glosses, where it renders Latin vōx.[9][13] In Beowulf it occurs once.[7]

The word lived on as Middle English steven, now the archaic English steven.[1]

Timeline

  • s. ix med. – stefne minre “my voice” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.[10][11]
  • 890×897 – ða suigendan stefne in the Pastoral Care.[12][11]
  • s. x² – in the poems of the Vercelli and Exeter Books.[14][15][11]
  • s. x³/⁴ – the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss renders vox by stefn throughout.[16][13]
  • s. x/xi – in the Beowulf manuscript.[17][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. voice, a sound uttered by the mouth.[2][7]
  2. a sound, as of a trumpet.[2]
  3. (grammar) a form marking relation, as of the pronouns.[2]

Descendants

  • Middle English steven (→ English steven)[1]

Usage notes

Two other nouns are spelt stefn.[18][2] One, masculine, is the stem of a tree and the prow or stern of a ship: in Beowulf the men climb on stefn, onto the prow.[18][7] Holthausen sets it beside Old Saxon stamn and Old Norse stafn.[19] The other, also masculine, is a turn or time, used mostly in nīwan stefne “anew, again”, and of the English force that had sat out its turn of service in 894.[2][7] Bosworth–Toller also lists a feminine stefn “summons”, as in rādstefn.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 915
  3. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.91.1
  4. ^ a b Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 484
  5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 373
  6. ^ a b c d Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 269
  7. ^ a b c d e f 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. stefn
  8. ^ a b c Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 353
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stėfn
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
  12. ^ 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. 499
  13. ^ a b Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer
  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. 704
  15. ^ 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
  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. 291
  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. 344
  18. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 914
  19. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 318