stow

Forms

stōw f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular stōwe, nominative plural stōwa)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stōu, from Proto-Germanic *stōō (“place; judgement”).^[1][2] The Proto-Germanic noun is continued in Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌰 (staua, “judgement”), Old Norse eldstó (“fireplace”), Old Frisian stō (“place”) and the first part of Old High German stuotago (“Judgement Day”).^[2][3][4]

Kroonen reconstructs it as *steh₂-ueh₂-, a noun made to the root Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), and compares Lithuanian stovà (“place”) and the Slavic verb Proto-Slavic *staviti (“to place”).^[2] Holthausen compares the same Lithuanian and Slavic words.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in a charter of 836 in which King Wiglaf of Mercia grants privileges to the minster at Hanbury, Worcestershire, surviving in a single sheet held to be contemporary: land is to be given back into dære halgan stowe Weogurnacestre “to the holy place at Worcester”, the cathedral community.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller set out the senses: a place, spot or site; a place on the body; a built place, a house, settlement or dwelling; a position or station; a place in a series; a person's place or stead; and a passage in a book.^[7] In the charters it most often names a holy place, a church or minster, as in its first record, but also an ordinary site.^[8][9] It renders Latin locus and mansio in glosses.^[4] It formed many compounds, ċēapstōw (“market place”), wælstōw (“battlefield”) among them, and remains in place-names such as Stow and Chepstow.^[7]

As a common noun it lived on as Middle English stowe, surviving in English dialects and place-names; the verb English stow "to put in a place" was made from it around 1300.^[10][3]

Timeline

• 836 – dære halgan stowe “the holy place” in King Wiglaf's charter for Hanbury, in a contemporary single sheet.^[5][6]
• s. ix med. – in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[11][6]
• 890×897 – in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[12][6]
• s. x/xi – stōw in Beowulf (line 1372).^[13][14]
• c. 1300 – the English verb stow made from the noun.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. a place, spot, site.^[7][4]
2. a place on the body.^[7]
3. a built place: a house, a settlement, a dwelling; a holy place, church or minster.^[7][8]
4. a position, station; a place in a series.^[7]
5. a person's place, stead.^[7]
6. a passage in a book.^[7]

Word family

• ċēapstōw
• wælstōw
• eardungstōw
• frēolsstōw
• friþstōw
• legerstōw
• stōwian

Descendants

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

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 481
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 324
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stōw
5. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 190
6. ^ 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
7. ^ 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. 924
8. ^ a b Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 127
9. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 202
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ 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
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. 499
13. ^ 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. stōw
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. 344