writan

Forms

wrītan (strong class 1; third-person singular present wrītt, past singular wrāt, past plural writon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wrītan, from Proto-Germanic *wrītaną (“to scratch, carve”).^[1] The verb is shared with Old Frisian wrīta (“to write”), Old Saxon wrītan (“to tear; to write”), Old High German rīzan (“to tear, scratch”) and Old Norse ríta (“to scratch, write”).^[2][3][4]

Kroonen sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *wreyd- with no known relatives outside Germanic, and Orel calls the verb of uncertain origin.^[3][2] Köbler and Holthausen, after Pokorny, place it under a root Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to tear, scratch”).^[5][4]

The Germanic verb is usually thought to have meant “to tear” and “to scratch”, the sense “to write” arising with runic inscriptions.^[6] It is a strong verb of the first class (⟨wrāt⟩, ⟨writon⟩, ⟨writen⟩).^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is the will of Abba, a Kentish reeve, made between 833 and 839 and surviving in a contemporary single sheet, which opens Ic Abba geroefa cyðe & writan hate hu min willa is “I, Abba the reeve, make known and have written down what my will is”.^[9][10] The will of Badanoth Beotting (845×853) opens with the same formula.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller order the senses from cutting a figure on something (a circle on a stone with the point of a knife, letters or runes), through drawing a figure, to forming letters and composing a book.^[12] In Beowulf the history of the ancient strife is writen “engraved” on the hilt of the giants' sword.^[13] In the medical texts one writes Christ's cross on a limb or over a drink.^[12] In the glosses it renders Latin “scribere”.^[5]

The verb lived on as Middle English writen, now English write.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 833×839 – writan hate “order to be written” in Abba's will, a contemporary single sheet.^[9][10]
• 890×897 – wrīt on hiere ða burg Hierusalem “draw on it the city of Jerusalem” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[16][12]
• s. x² – God writes the mysteries on the tables of stone in Andreas (Vercelli Book).^[17][12]
• s. x/xi – writen “engraved” on the sword-hilt in the Beowulf manuscript.^[18][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. to cut, engrave, incise a figure or letters.^[12][13]
2. to draw a figure.^[12]
3. to write letters or words.^[12][5]
4. to write a book, compose; to write about or to someone.^[12]

Word family

• āwrītan
• ġewrītan
• forwrītan
• tōwrītan
• ġewrit
• wrītere

Descendants

• Middle English writen (→ English write; Scots writ)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 473
3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 596
4. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 409
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wrītan
6. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 142
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 6.46
8. ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton, p. 566
9. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1482
10. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
11. ^ The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1510
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1275
13. ^ 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. wrītan
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ 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
17. ^ 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
18. ^ 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. 344