wæcce

Forms

wæċċe f (weak n-stem; genitive singular wæċċan, nominative plural wæċċan)^[1]

Etymology

It is a noun from Old English wæċċan (“to watch, be awake”), the verb that stands beside wacian (“to be awake”).^[1] Köbler sets it beside a feminine noun Proto-Germanic *wakō (“watch”), continued by Old Norse vaka and Old High German wahha, and traces the family to the root Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be fresh, strong”).^[2][3] Holthausen compares the related verb with Latin vegeō (“to be lively”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first firmly dated record is in Bald's Leechbook, copied in the middle of the tenth century, where ungemet wæccum, “excessive wakefulness”, is among the ailments in a list of disorders.^[5][6] The Old English Bede, in a manuscript of the early tenth or the first half of the eleventh century, describes a man busy on singalum gebedum & wæccum dæges & nihtes, “in constant prayers and vigils day and night”.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller separate wakefulness or sleeplessness, which the medical texts treat as an illness, from watching done on purpose: a vigil, a watch kept in church.^[8] The glossaries give it for Latin vigilia and excubiae.^[8][2] A homily distinguishes the watch of the body, kept at the night office, from the watch of the mind against the devil.^[8] From the Gospels it also names one of the four watches into which the night was divided.^[8]

It lived on as Middle English wacche, first “wakefulness”, now English watch.^[9][10]

Timeline

• s. x med. – ungemet wæccum “excessive wakefulness” in Bald's Leechbook.^[5][6]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – gebedum & wæccum “prayers and vigils” in the Old English Bede.^[7][6]
• s. x² – wæccum in a Vercelli homily.^[11][6]
• s. x ex. – Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[12][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. wakefulness, sleeplessness.^[8]
2. a watch, vigil; watchfulness.^[8][13][2]
3. one of the divisions of the night.^[8]

Word family

• ċiriċwæċċe
• nihtwæċċe
• ūhtwæċċe

Descendants

• Middle English wacche (→ English watch)^[1]

Related words

• wæċċan
• wacian
• wacu

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wæcce
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 378
5. ^ 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. 412
6. ^ a b c d e f 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 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1149
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ 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. 704
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. 407
13. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 739