stræt

Forms

strǣt f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular strǣte, nominative plural strǣta)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin strāta, short for via strāta (“paved road”), from the past participle of sternō (“to spread out”).^[2][1][3] Durkin counts it among the Latin words that the Germanic peoples took over through contact with the Roman Empire before the settlement of Britain.^[4] Its vowel shows the fronting of /aː/ to /æː/, one of the earliest Old English sound changes, so it was borrowed very early.^[5] Old Frisian strēte, Old Dutch strāta, Old Saxon strāta and Old High German strāza match it, and most scholars take it as a common West Germanic loan, Proto-West Germanic *strātu.^[5][1]

The West Saxon form is strǣt;^[6][1] Mercian and Kentish have strēt.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, 890×897): Hwæt getacnað eac sio rume stræt butan ðone widan weg ðisses andwerdan lifes? “What else does the broad street signify but the wide way of this present life?”^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a made road: the Roman roads that the Old English Bede says the Romans built with towns and bridges, the dry road through the Red Sea in the Exodus, and the roads named in charter bounds, such as a sealtstrǣt or ealde strǣt.^[9][10] Sweet glosses it “(Roman) road”, and in the laws it is a public highway, named in Watling Street and Icknield Street.^[11][12] It also means a street in a town, rendering Latin “platea”.^[13] The Beowulf poet uses it of the paved road to Heorot.^[3]

The word lived on as Middle English strete, now English street, one of the few words in use in England without a break since Roman times.^[1][6]

Timeline

• 890×897 – sio rume stræt “the broad street” in the Pastoral Care.^[7][8]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – ceastre & torras & stræta & brycge built by the Romans, in the Old English Bede.^[14][8]
• 944 – in the English bounds of King Edmund's grant of Badby, Northamptonshire, on a single sheet held to be contemporary.^[15][8]
• s. x/xi – in the Beowulf manuscript.^[16][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. a paved road, highway, a Roman road.^[9][11][10]
2. a street in a town.^[13][17]

Word family

• cynestrǣt
• ċēapstrǣt
• burhstrǣt
• sealtstrǣt
• lagustrǣt
• merestrǣt
• wīgstrǣt

Descendants

• Middle English strete (→ English street; Scots street; Scots streit)^[1]

Usage notes

A rare strǣt “bed, couch”, in the psalter glosses, is a separate loan from Latin strātum.^[9][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 325
3. ^ a b c 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. strǣt
4. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 55
5. ^ a b Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 147
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 925
10. ^ a b LangScape: The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside, King's College London, langscape.org.uk
11. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 184
12. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 202
13. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 713
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. 531
15. ^ 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 495
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. 344
17. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. strǣt 1
18. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. strǣt 2