stingan

Forms

stingan (strong class 3; third-person singular present stingþ, past singular stang, past plural stungon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stingan, from Proto-Germanic *stinganą (“to stick out, to sting”).^[1] Orel sets up the Proto-Germanic verb as *stenʒanan, continued by Old Norse stinga (“to sting”) and Old High German stingan (“to let blood”), and compares Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌰𐌽 (usstaggan, “to pluck out”).^[2] Köbler lists the same Gothic, Old Norse and Old High German verbs.^[3] De Vries adds the later Scandinavian forms and names the Old English verb as the nearest cognate of the Old Norse one.^[4]

Köbler traces it to a root Proto-Indo-European *stengʰ- (“to prick; pole; stiff”) (Pokorny 1014).^[5] Holthausen and de Vries compare Ancient Greek στάχυς (stákhus, “ear of grain”) and connect the verb with Old English stenġ “pole” and Old Norse stanga (“pole”).^[6][4] Wiktionary notes that the Greek word may come from a substrate, as its variant ἄσταχυς (ástakhus) suggests, which would leave the Germanic verb without certain cognates outside Germanic.^[1] Orel instead compares Baltic and Slavic verbs for “exert oneself” and “flog”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20), written 890×897: the wise teacher is compared with a physician who feels and strokes the sore and “hyt his seax & hwæt, ærðonðe he stingan wille”, hides his knife and whets it before he means to lance it.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller separate two uses: thrusting something into something else (a knife into a plant, a feather into the mouth), and pricking or piercing with a point, as a bee, a thorn or a spear does.^[9] The second covers the bee's sting in the Old English Boethius and the spear thrust in The Battle of Maldon (hé mid gáre stang wlancne wícing).^[9] A figurative use, “to thrust oneself into” something, appears in charters and laws forbidding laymen to claim authority over a church;^[9][10] Sweet glosses stingan on as “lay claim to, usurp”.^[9][10]

The verb lived on as Middle English stingen, meaning “pierce, stab” and “thrust”, now English sting.^[11][1]

Timeline

• 890×897 – ærðonðe he stingan wille of a physician about to lance a sore, in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[7][8]
• s. x med. – stingð of a bee that stings in anger, in the Old English Boethius (Cotton Otho A. vi).^[12][8]
• s. x med. – the verb in Bald's Leechbook (Royal 12 D. xvii).^[13][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. to thrust or stick something into something.^[9][10]
2. to sting, stab, pierce.^[9][5]
3. (with on) to lay claim to, usurp; to meddle with.^[10][9]

Word family

• bestingan
• ġestingan
• ofstingan
• onstingan
• tōstingan
• þurhstingan

Descendants

• Middle English styngen (→ English sting; Scots sting)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 374
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 548
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stingan
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 323
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. 499
8. ^ 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
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. 921
10. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 184
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. 296
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. 412