steorfan

Forms

steorfan (strong class 3; third-person singular present stierfþ, past singular stearf, past plural sturfon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sterban, from Proto-Germanic *sterbaną (“to become stiff; to die”).^[1] The West Germanic languages share the verb: Old Frisian sterva, Old Saxon stervan, Old Dutch stervan and Old High German sterban, all “to die”.^[2][3][4] The related Old Norse verb is starfa (“to toil, labour”).^[5][6]

The usual explanation starts from “to become stiff”: Köbler and Wiktionary derive the verb from Proto-Indo-European *sterbʰ- (“to be stiff”), and compare Ancient Greek στέρφνιος (stérphnios, “hard, firm”).^[3][1] Holthausen and Orel add the Old Irish word for death, Old Irish ussarb, from a form *ud-sterbhā, and Orel the Slavic verb Proto-Slavic *stьrbati (“to stiffen, to die”).^[5][2] Etymonline also gives the sense “become stiff”, from an extended form of *ster- (“stiff”).^[7] Wiktionary notes a second view, which starts from a root meaning “to become numb” and compares Latin torpeō (“to be numb”).^[1]

It is a strong verb of the third class, with past stearf, sturfon and participle storfen.^[1][8] Proto-Germanic /e/ was broken to ⟨eo⟩ before /r/ and a consonant in the present, and /a/ to ⟨ea⟩ in the past singular.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only dated early record is in Ælfric's first series of Catholic Homilies, in a manuscript of about 990 (London, British Library, Royal 7 C. xii).^[10] Ananias and Sapphira, who had cheated over their own property, mid færlicum deaðe ætforan þam apostolum steorfende afeollon “fell down dying a sudden death before the apostles”.^[11][8]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the verb simply means “to die”, of people and of animals: a leechbook warns that a man who takes to his bed on a certain day of the moon raðe hé styrfþ “will soon die”, and another text speaks of cattle dying.^[8] The DOE Corpus has only a few forms that belong to this verb alone.^[11] In the last annals of the Peterborough Chronicle men die “of hunger” (stærf of hunger, 1124, sturuen of hungær, 1137).^[8]

Middle English sterven still meant “die, perish”, and was used of dying of hunger.^[12] It came to mean especially “die of cold” in the fourteenth century and “die of hunger” in the fifteenth, and became weak by the sixteenth;^[7] German sterben keeps the old sense.^[7] English starve continues it.^[7]

Timeline

• s. x ex. – steorfende afeollon “fell down dying” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[10][11]
• 1124, 1137 – stærf of hunger, sturuen of hungær “died of hunger” in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[8]
• 14th century – Middle English sterven “die of cold”.^[7]
• mid-15th century – “die from want of food”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. to die, perish.^[8][13][3]

Word family

• āsteorfan

Descendants

• Middle English sterven (→ English starve; English sterve; Scots sterve)^[1]

Related words

• steorfa

Usage notes

The spelling steorfan is also an oblique case of the noun steorfa “plague, pestilence”, which lived on as Middle English sterve.^[11][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 375
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. steorfan
4. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. sterva
5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 320
6. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. starfa
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 917
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.32
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. 407
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b 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)
13. ^ 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