storm

Forms

storm m (strong a-stem; genitive singular stormes, nominative plural stormas)^[1] Northumbrian stearm in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sturm, from Proto-Germanic *sturmaz (“storm”).^[1][4] The noun is shared by Old Norse stormr, Old Saxon storm and Old High German sturm.^[4][5][6]

Orel derives it from the verb Proto-Germanic *sturjaną, the source of styrian "to stir", which he relates to Sanskrit तुरति (turáti, “to hurry”).^[4] Holthausen likewise sets it beside the same verb and styrman.^[6] Köbler and Etymonline trace it to a root Proto-Indo-European *twer- (“to turn, whirl”).^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is among the oldest recorded in English: the Épinal Glossary (s. vii ex. or vii/viii) glosses Latin "nimbus" with storm.^[8][9] The Corpus Glossary (s. ix¹) has the same gloss, Nymbus storm.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give "storm, tempest" first, with a storm of arrows in Beowulf and the storm of the mind in the Pastoral Care as figurative uses, then "uproar, tumult" and "violent attack".^[11] The glosses render Latin "nimbus", "procella", "tempestas" and "grando".^[11][12] The sense of attack and onrush is mainly poetic.^[13]

It lived on as Middle English storm, now English storm.^[14][7]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. – nimbus storm in the Épinal Glossary.^[8][9]
• s. ix med. – storm strong for Latin “tempestas ualida” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[15][9]
• 890×897 – ðæs modes storm “the storm of the mind” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[16][11]
• s. x² – stormas cnyssað in The Wanderer in the Exeter Book.^[17][1]
• s. x/xi – strǣla storm “a storm of arrows” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[18][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. a storm, tempest; figuratively a storm of arrows, of the mind.^[11][12]
2. uproar, tumult, disturbance.^[11][13]
3. a violent attack, onrush.^[11][19]

Descendants

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

Related words

• styrian
• styrman

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 713
3. ^ 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 Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 384
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *sturmaz
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 324
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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
11. ^ 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. 924
12. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. storm
13. ^ 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. 323
14. ^ 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)
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. 329
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. 223
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
19. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 184