wandrian

Forms

wandrian (weak class 2; third-person singular present wandraþ, past singular wandrode, past plural wandrodon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wandarōn.^[1] Wiktionary takes the Proto-West Germanic verb from Proto-Germanic *wandarōn (“to waver, change, wander”), made with the frequentative suffix *-rōn on *wandōn (“to turn, change”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn, wind”).^[1] Holthausen likewise refers it to windan and compares Old Frisian wandria, Middle Low German wanderen and Middle High German wanderen, beside wander (“change, course”).^[2] Etymonline also traces it to the root of wind, with a Germanic suffix of repeated action.^[3] The adjective Proto-Germanic *wandaz (“turned, twisted”), the base of the Proto-Germanic verb in -ōn, is an o-grade formation from *windaną (“to wind”) in Kroonen's account.^[4]

Köbler instead sets it beside Proto-Germanic *wratōn (“to go, wander”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *wered- (“to bend, sway”).^[5] It is a weak verb of the second class.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Pastoral Care of the Hatton manuscript (890×897), in a figurative sense: the mind that leaves its own work and busies itself with other men's affairs færð swa wandriende from his hade & of his endebyrdnesse “goes wandering thus from its station and its order”, a comment on Dinah going out to see the women of the land.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller divide the senses into the physical one, to wander or roam, used of the planet Saturn moving above the other stars in the Boethius and of the raven circling in the Fight at Finnsburh, and the figurative ones, leaving one's proper work and straying.^[9][6] Clark Hall adds “fly round, hover”, “change” and “err”.^[10] In the glosses it renders Latin “vagatur” and “ludivaga”.^[9] The word is rare: the DOE Corpus has a dozen occurrences.^[8]

It lived on as Middle English wandren, now English wander.^[11][3]

Timeline

• 890×897 – færð swa wandriende from his hade, of a mind that strays from its own work, in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[7][8]
• s. x med. – se wandrað ofer oðrum steorrum, of Saturn, in the Old English Boethius (Cotton Otho A. vi).^[12][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. to wander, rove, roam.^[9][10][13]
2. of a bird or a heavenly body: to fly round, hover, circle.^[10][6][9]
3. (figurative) to leave one's proper work; to stray, err.^[9][10]
4. to change.^[10][5]

Descendants

• Middle English wandren (→ English wander; Middle Scots wander; Middle Scots wandir)^[1]

Related words

• windan

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 383
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 573
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wandrian
6. ^ 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. wandrian
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 d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1165
10. ^ a b c d e Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 397
11. ^ 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)
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. 296
13. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 222