wræstan

Forms

wrǣstan (weak class 1; third-person singular present wrǣsteþ, past singular wrǣste, past plural wrǣston)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *wraistijaną (“to wrest, twist”).^[1] Orel and Köbler list one cognate, Old Norse reista (“to bend, twist”).^[2][3] De Vries derives the Old Norse verb from a Proto-Norse form and compares Middle Dutch wreiselen (“to turn”).^[4]

The verb is a causative made to the root of wrist: Orel derives it from *wristiz, and de Vries counts it a formation to the verb that gave Old English wrīþan (“to twist, bind”).^[2][4] Köbler traces it to Proto-Indo-European *wrizd-, an extension of Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”) (Pokorny 1152, 1158).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Exeter Book (s. x²), in The Fortunes of Men: one man shall sit at his lord's feet with the harp ond a snellice snere wræstan, “and ever briskly pluck the string”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give two senses: to wrest or twist, as when a demon wrenches a man's windpipe in Solomon and Saturn, and to move the strings of a harp in playing.^[8] Only four occurrences are recorded, two in verse and two in glosses.^[7]

It became Middle English wresten “turn, twist, wrench”, now English wrest; the Middle English verb also has the Old Norse verb behind it.^[9][10]

Timeline

• s. x² – snere wræstan “to pluck the string” in The Fortunes of Men, Exeter Book.^[6][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. to wrest, twist, bend.^[8][5]
2. to pluck or twang the strings of a harp.^[8]

Word family

• āwrǣstan
• ġewrǣstan

Related words

• wrist
• wrīþan

Usage notes

Bosworth and Toller list, with a query, a second wrǣstan “to be or make elegant”, from glosses on Aldhelm, which they connect with the adjective wrǣst.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 471
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 439
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wrǣstan
6. ^ 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. 223
7. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1270
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