weg

Forms

weġ m (nominative plural wegas) (strong a-stem)^[1]

• Mercian wæg, Kentish wig, Northumbrian woeg; plural wegas, also weogas.^[2]
• Épinal Glossary uuaega (genitive plural), Erfurt Glossary uuoeg.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *weg, from Proto-Germanic *wegaz (“way, road”).^[1][4] The noun is common Germanic: Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌲𐍃 (wigs), Old Norse vegr, Old Frisian wei, Old Saxon weg and Old High German weg.^[4][5][6]

Kroonen and Orel derive it from the strong verb *weganą (“to move, carry”), the ancestor of wegan (“to carry”).^[4][5][6] Köbler compares the root Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move, carry, ride”).^[7] Holthausen and de Vries compare a Lithuanian word for a wheel rut.^[6][8]

After a front vowel the final ⟨g⟩ was palatal, and the early glossaries and Kentish texts often write it ⟨i⟩, as in ⟨wei⟩.^[9] In the Épinal Glossary's ⟨uuaega⟩ the vowel is lowered after w, while the Erfurt Glossary's ⟨uuoeg⟩ shows the rounding of later Northumbrian.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Épinal Glossary, written at the end of the seventh century or about 700: Latin “quacumque modo” is glossed gihuuuelci uuaega “in every way”, with the genitive plural of the word in the sense “manner”.^[10][11][12] The Corpus Glossary, of the first half of the ninth century, has the same gloss as gehwelci wega.^[13][12] Bosworth and Toller put the gloss under the sense of conduct and manner.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller order the senses from the direction in which someone moves, through a road or path that people use, to a journey or the distance to be covered, and to a way of acting, a manner or method.^[14] The phrases on weg “away” (written aweg) and ealne weg “always” were fixed early.^[15][16] In the plural, in compounds such as norþwegas, the word means regions.^[14] In charter bounds it is very frequent, nearly always as the second element of a compound or phrase.^[17]

The word lived on as Middle English wei, “a road, a path”, now English way.^[2][18]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. or vii/viii – gihuuuelci uuaega “in every way” in the Épinal Glossary.^[10][11][12]
• s. ix¹ – gehwelci wega in the Corpus Glossary.^[13][12]
• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – þonne rideþ ælc hys weges “then each rides his own way” in the Old English Orosius.^[19][14]
• s. x² – feorne weg “distant parts” in Andreas, in the Vercelli Book.^[20][21]

Meanings

Noun

1. a way, the direction in which one goes;^[14][16] on weġ away.^[14][16]
2. a road, a path, a highway.^[14][15]
3. a journey; the distance to be travelled.^[14]
4. a way of acting, a manner, a course of action.^[14][7]
5. ealne weġ (as an adverb) always.^[15][16]

Word family

• ċiricweġ
• gangweġ
• hēafodweġ
• hēahweġ
• healfweġ
• hereweġ
• līfweġ
• onweġ
• stānweġ
• weġrēaf
• foldweġ
• forþweġ

Descendants

• Middle English wey (→ English way; Scots wey; Scots way)^[1]

Related words

• wegan

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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)
3. ^ a b Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. lxxiv
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 577
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 452
6. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 388
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. weg
8. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 650
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 2.39
10. ^ 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. 610
11. ^ a b Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 44
12. ^ 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
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. 76
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1183
15. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 401
16. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 224
17. ^ Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 144
18. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ 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. 249
20. ^ 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
21. ^ North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary), p. s.v. weg