streccan

Forms

streċċan (third-person singular present streċeþ, past singular streahte, past plural streahton)^[1] Also past strehte, past participle streht, streaht and streced.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch out”),^[1][3] a verb in *-jan made to the adjective *strak (“stretched, straight”).^[1] Orel sets up the verb as Proto-Germanic *strakkjanan and derives it from the same adjective; its cognates are Old Frisian strekka (“to stretch”), Old High German strecken and Norwegian strekkja.^[4][5] Holthausen likewise connects it with the Middle Low German and Old High German adjective strack “taut, straight”.^[6]

The deeper origin is uncertain: Köbler places it with the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *streg- (“stiff, rigid”), a variant of *ster-;^[5][7] Etymonline gives this connection with the root of English stark as one possibility and a root meaning “tight, narrow” as the other.^[8]

The geminate gave Old English ⟨ċċ⟩: *strakkjan became *stræċċąn and then streċċan, with fronting of the vowel, palatalisation of the doubled consonant and i-umlaut.^[3][9] Palatalisation runs through the present of weak class 1 verbs such as this one.^[10] The past streahte and the participle streaht have no connecting vowel and keep the unumlauted vowel, as in Old High German strahta.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded first in the Old English translation of Bede, whose main manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tanner 10) dates from the early tenth or the first half of the eleventh century.^[12] A cripple came to the body of Saint Cuthbert, & hine wæs in gebed streccende æt lichoman þæs Godes weres “and was stretching himself out in prayer at the body of the man of God”;^[13] the Latin has “prosternens se”, prostrating himself.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller sort the uses into three: holding out or extending something, as the hands in the West Saxon Gospels (Ðú strecst ðíne handa, for the Latin “extendes”); spreading something out, as the crowd's garments on the road (Latin “straverunt”); and prostrating oneself, as in the Bede.^[2] Clark Hall and Sweet add the intransitive sense “reach, extend”.^[14][15] Ælfric uses it figuratively: Strece ðǽrtó ðínne hiht “stretch your hope towards it”.^[2] In glosses it renders Latin “prosternere”.^[5]

The verb lived on as Middle English strecchen, now English stretch; the sense “lay out a corpse for burial” is recorded from the early thirteenth century.^[8] Forms without the doubled consonant gave streken “to lie stretched out”, the source of dialect streek.^[16]

Timeline

• s. x in. or xi¹ – hine wæs in gebed streccende “was prostrating himself in prayer” in the Old English Bede.^[12][13]
• s. x ex. – Strece ðǽrtó ðínne hiht “stretch your hope towards it” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[17][2]
• early 13th century – Middle English strecchen “lay out (a corpse) for burial”.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. to stretch out, hold out (the hands); to extend.^[2][15]
2. to spread out (garments on a road).^[2]
3. (reflexive) to prostrate oneself.^[2][5]
4. (intransitive) to reach, stretch as far as.^[14]

Word family

• āstreċċan
• ġestreċċan

Descendants

• Middle English strecchen (→ English stretch)^[8]
• Middle English streken (→ English streek; Scots strek)^[1][16]

Related words

• stræc

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 927
3. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 238
4. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 380
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. streccan
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 325
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.17
10. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.24
11. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 97
12. ^ 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. 531
13. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 185
16. ^ a b 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)
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. 407