wascan

Forms

wascan (strong class 6; third-person singular present wæsċþ, past singular wōsc, past plural wōscon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *waskan, from Proto-Germanic *waskaną (“to wash”).^[1][2] The strong verb is shared with Old Saxon waskan (only the preterite wōsk is recorded) and Old High German wascan; Old Norse vaska is a weak verb, and Orel and Seebold leave open whether it is native or taken from West Germanic.^[2][3][4]

Kroonen explains it as a present in *-ske- made to the word for water, Proto-Germanic *watōr, from a pre-form Proto-Indo-European *uod-ske-;^[2] Orel and Köbler also derive it from the water word, and Wiktionary sets up an earlier *watskaną from the root Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“wet, water”).^[3][5][1] Seebold, by contrast, finds no certain comparison for it outside Germanic.^[4]

The spellings ⟨waxan⟩ and ⟨wacsan⟩ show the metathesis of /sk/ to /ks/, as in ⟨fixas⟩ “fishes” and ⟨tux⟩ “tusk”.^[6] Wiktionary writes the lemma ⟨wascan⟩ and gives ⟨wæscan⟩, ⟨wacsan⟩ and ⟨waxan⟩ as other spellings, while Bosworth and Toller head it ⟨wæscan⟩.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the Old English Bede, in the Tanner manuscript, which Gneuss and Lapidge date to the beginning of the tenth or the first half of the eleventh century: a brother of the monastery went out one day þæt he wolde his reon & his hwitlas … in sæ wæscan & feormian “because he wished to wash and clean his blankets and his linen in the sea”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the verb is used mostly of clothes and cloths: in Maxims I the wife greets her seafaring husband, wæsceð his warig hrægl “washes his sea-stained garment” and gives him fresh clothes.^[7][9] In the Benedictine Rule the weekly servers wash the towels, a charter speaks of washing sheep, and the translation of Leviticus of washing the entrails of a sacrifice.^[7] Etymonline notes that the main verb for washing the body and dishes was þwēan.^[10] Clark Hall and Holthausen also give “bathe”.^[11][12]

The verb continued as Middle English waschen, now English wash;^[10][1] Etymonline dates the spiritual sense of cleansing from sin to Old English.^[10][1]

Timeline

• s. x in. or s. xi¹ – his reon & his hwitlas … in sæ wæscan “wash his blankets and linen in the sea” in the Old English Bede (Tanner 10).^[8][9]
• s. x² – wæsceð his warig hrægl “washes his stained garment” in Maxims I in the Exeter Book.^[13][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. to wash, especially clothes; to cleanse.^[7][5]
2. to bathe.^[12][11]

Word family

• āwascan
• ġewascan
• unwascen
• wæsc

Descendants

• Middle English waschen (→ English wash; Middle Scots wesch; Middle Scots wasch)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 575
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 450
4. ^ a b Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton, p. 539
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wascan
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.96
7. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1158
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. 531
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 c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ 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. 398
12. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 384
13. ^ 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. 223