tear

Forms

tēar m (strong a-stem; genitive singular tēares, nominative plural tēaras)^[1] Northumbrian tæhher, teh(h)er with gemination, and poetic teagor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *tahr, from Proto-Germanic *tahrą (“tear”).^[1][2] Its cognates are Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐍂 (tagr), Old Norse tár, Old Frisian tār and Old High German zahar;^[4][5][6] Old Saxon and Old High German also have a form with -n-, Old Saxon trahan and trahan.^[4][5][6]

It is an old Indo-European word for "tear", seen in Ancient Greek δάκρυ (dákru), Latin lacrima (older dacrima), Old Irish dér and Welsh deigr.^[4][6] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *dáḱru-.^[1] Kroonen takes it as a heteroclitic noun whose four stem variants in Germanic, among them Proto-Germanic *tagra- and *trahna-, split off from one paradigm; he reports Kortlandt's analysis of it as a compound of the root Proto-Indo-European *derḱ- (“to see”) with a word for "tear".^[4]

West Germanic gemination before /r/ gave three variants, Proto-West Germanic *tagr, the form given above and *tahhra-: Old English teagor continues the first, the usual form the second, and Northumbrian ⟨tæhher⟩ the third.^[7] In the second the vowel was broken before /h/, and the /h/ was then lost with lengthening, giving ⟨tēar⟩.^[2] The endingless nominative singular is regular in West Saxon.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Vespasian Psalter gloss (s. ix med.), Psalm 6: mid tearum strene mine ic wetu "with tears I shall wet my bed", glossing lacrimis stratum meum rigabo.^[9][10] Hogg cites the Vespasian Psalter's tēar among the Anglian forms with ⟨ea⟩.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller separate tears shed from emotion, usually grief, from tears caused by weakness of the eyes, and add a "tearlike drop".^[12] In the Pastoral Care the eyelids of the blear-eyed grow thick from the tears that often flow from them.^[13][10] Clark Hall glosses it also as "drop" and as "nectar", what is distilled in drops.^[14] It renders Latin lacrima.^[15]

The word became Middle English teer, English tear.^[16]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – mid tearum “with tears”, glossing lacrimis, in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[9][10]
• 890×897 – for ðæm tearum “because of the tears” of the blear-eyed in the Pastoral Care.^[13][10]
• s. x med. – in Bald's Leechbook.^[17][10]
• s. x/xi – hruron him tēaras “his tears fell” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[18][12]
• Middle English – ter, tere.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. a tear, shed from grief or other emotion.^[12][5]
2. a tear caused by weakness of the eyes.^[12]
3. a drop; what is distilled in drops, nectar.^[12][14]

Word family

• tēarian
• wollentēar
• brynetēar

Descendants

• Middle English teer (→ English tear; Middle Scots tear; Middle Scots tere)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 177
3. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 4.14
4. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 504
5. ^ 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. tēar
6. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 344
7. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 54
8. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 305
9. ^ 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. 329
10. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
11. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.141
12. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 973
13. ^ 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
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. 338
15. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. téar
16. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. 412
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