stiele

Forms

stīele n (strong ja-stem; genitive singular stīeles, nominative plural -)^[1] Late West Saxon stȳle, the spelling of the Exeter Book and Beowulf (style); early Mercian stēli in the Corpus Glossary.^[2] The Épinal Glossary has steeli and the Erfurt Glossary steli for Latin “accearium”.^[3] Bosworth and Toller head the word stíle;^[4][5] stéle also occurs.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stahlī (“steel weapon”), a derivative in *-ja- of Proto-Germanic *stahlą (“steel”).^[1][6] The same derivative is continued in Old Saxon stehli and in Old Frisian in the adjective stēlen (“of steel”), while the simple noun survives in Old High German stahal, Old Saxon stahal, Old Dutch stāl and Old Norse stál.^[6][7][8]

The Germanic noun goes back to a pre-Germanic form in *-lo- of a root Proto-Indo-European *stek- (“to be firm, hard”).^[6] Indo-Iranian words for “resist” and “firm” may belong to the same root;^[6][1] Wiktionary calls the link with Avestan tenuous.^[6][1] Holthausen and Köbler compare Old Prussian panustaclan (“fire steel”), but the EWA thinks the Old Prussian word more likely an early loan from German.^[7][9][6]

In West Saxon the vowel was broken before /x/ and then umlauted, *stahlī > *stæhlī > *steahlī > *stiehlī, and the loss of /x/ lengthened it, giving stīele and late stȳle;^[10][11][12] Anglian, with smoothing, has stēli.^[10][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is among the oldest recorded English words: the Épinal Glossary, of the late seventh century or about 700, glosses Latin “accearium” (steel) with steeli.^[13][3][14] The Corpus Glossary of the first half of the ninth century has Accearium steli.^[15][14]

Semantic evolution

Outside the glossaries the word is almost only poetic.^[4] In the Exeter Book riddles the speaker is harder than the flint þe þis fyr drifeþ of þissum strongan style heardan “that drives this fire out of this strong, hard steel”, and in another a weapon of steel bites.^[4][14] In Beowulf Grendel's nails are style gelicost “most like steel”.^[4][16][14] The adjective stīlen “of steel” and the compound stīlecg “steel-edged”, said of a sword in Beowulf, are made from it.^[4]

It lived on as Middle English stele, now English steel.^[17][18]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. or vii/viii – steeli for Latin “accearium” in the Épinal Glossary.^[13][3][14]
• s. ix¹ – steli in the Corpus Glossary.^[15][14]
• s. x² – of þissum strongan style heardan in the Exeter Book riddles.^[19][14]
• s. x/xi – style gelicost in the Beowulf manuscript.^[20][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. steel.^[4][9][16]

Word family

• stīlen
• stīlecg

Descendants

• Middle English stele (→ English steel; Scots stele; Scots steill)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 306
3. ^ a b c Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 5
4. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 920
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 915
6. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. stahal
7. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 321
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stíele
10. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 241
11. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 334
12. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.124
13. ^ 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. 610
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
15. ^ 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. 76
16. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 325
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ 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
20. ^ 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