twegen

Forms

twēġen m, twā f, tū or twā n; genitive twēġ(e)ra and dative twām for all genders.^[2] Dative also twǣm, with i-umlaut, beside the regular late West Saxon twām; the older genitive is twēġ(e)a.^[3][4] Northumbrian twōēġe, with a rounded vowel;^[3] Kentish twǣġen in charter S 1482.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *twai-, from Proto-Germanic *twai (“two”).^[1] Kroonen sets up the Proto-Germanic paradigm with this masculine beside feminine *twōz and neuter *tū, from Proto-Indo-European *duó- (“two”).^[5] The numeral is shared by the other Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍄𐍅𐌰𐌹 (twai), Old Norse tveir, Old Frisian twēne, Old Saxon twēne and Old High German zwēne.^[5][6] Outside Germanic it matches Latin duo, Ancient Greek δύο (dúo) and Lithuanian du.^[6][7]

The masculine form does not continue the Proto-Germanic masculine directly: it was remade in West Germanic after the quantifier bēġen (“both”), with which it declines in parallel, and the genitive twēġ(e)ra follows the same model.^[4] The neuter tū continues the old neuter, while the feminine twā is the old masculine; the dative twǣm goes back to an instrumental *twaimiz.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The numeral is first recorded in the Corpus Glossary, written in the first half of the ninth century, where faeðm uel tuegen stridi, “a fathom or two strides”, glosses the Latin “passus”.^[8][9] In the will of the ealdorman Oswulf, of 805×810 and surviving in a ninth-century single sheet, a food render includes tuegen wines, “two [measures] of wine”.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

The word is the ordinary numeral “two” in prose and verse, with its gender forms used as the noun requires.^[11][12] The phrase on twā means “in two, apart”;^[13] ōþer twēga means “one of two, either”.^[13] In the glosses it renders Latin “duo”, “ambo” and “binus”.^[7] The masculine survived as Middle English twein, now twain;^[14][15] Etymonline notes that it outlived the loss of grammatical gender as a secondary form of two, which continues the feminine and neuter twā.^[15]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – faeðm uel tuegen stridi glossing “passus” in the Corpus Glossary.^[8][9]
• 805×810 – tuegen wines in the will of the ealdorman Oswulf, a ninth-century single sheet.^[10][9]
• s. x/xi – twēġen and feminine twā in Beowulf.^[12][16]
• late 10th century – twā ēagan and twā ēaran … and twēġen weoloras in Ælfric's preface to Genesis.^[1]

Meanings

Numeral

1. two.^[11][7]
2. on twā: in two, apart.^[13]
3. ōþer twēga: one of the two, either.^[13]
4. (glosses) both, rendering Latin “ambo”.^[7]

Word family

• twēntiġ

Descendants

• Middle English tweyne (→ English twain; Middle Scots twane)^[1]

Related words

• bēġen
• twi-
• twinn
• twiwa

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 4.82
3. ^ a b c Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 4.84
4. ^ a b c Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 4.83
5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 529
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 357
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. twēgen
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. 76
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. ^ 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 1188
11. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1021
12. ^ a b 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. twēġen
13. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 199
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. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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