wyrm

Forms

wyrm m (strong i-stem; genitive singular wyrmes, nominative plural wyrmas)^[1] Also written wurm and weorm.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wurmi, from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz (“worm, snake”).^[1][4] The noun is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌼𐍃 (waurms, “snake”), Old Norse ormr (“snake”), Old Frisian wirm (“worm”), Old Saxon wurm and Old High German wurm (“worm, snake”).^[4][5][6]

Kroonen identifies it with Latin vermis (“worm, maggot”), from Proto-Indo-European *urmi-; related are Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhómos, “woodworm”) and Lithuanian varmas (“insect, mosquito”).^[4][6] Köbler traces the root to Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[3] Orel follows Watkins in taking it as a rhyme formation beside Proto-Indo-European *kʷr̥mi- (“worm”).^[5]

It was an i-stem: the ending was lost after the long stem syllable, as in other nouns of the class.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded from the middle of the ninth century, in the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, where Psalm 21 (22) has Ic soðlice eam wyrm & nales mon “truly I am a worm and no man”, glossing “Ego autem sum vermis et non homo”.^[8][9] The sense there is figurative, a lowly creature.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old English wyrm covers any creeping animal: a snake or serpent (the serpent of Eden in Genesis), a dragon, and an insect, worm or maggot.^[2][10][11] In Beowulf it is the usual word for the dragon, beside draca.^[12] The medical texts treat worms in the eyes, the ears, the teeth and the bowels, and the riddles of the Exeter Book use it for the book-moth.^[2][9] In religious prose the worms that eat the body in the grave and the worm that does not die in hell are frequent images.^[2] In glosses it renders Latin “vermis”.^[3]

It lived on as Middle English worm, now English worm.^[1]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – Ic soðlice eam wyrm & nales mon “truly I am a worm and no man” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[8][9]
• s. x med. – gif wyrm toþ ete “if a worm eats a tooth” in Bald's Leechbook.^[13][9]
• s. x med. – ða smalan wyrmas “the small worms” that harm a man inside and out in the Old English Boethius.^[14][9]
• s. x² – the book-moth in a riddle of the Exeter Book.^[15][2]
• s. x/xi – the dragon in the Beowulf manuscript.^[16][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a reptile, serpent or snake.^[2][10]
2. a dragon.^[12][2]
3. a creeping insect, a worm or maggot.^[2][11]
4. (figurative) a wretched, lowly creature.^[10][2]

Word family

• reġnwyrm
• moldwyrm
• dēawwyrm
• seolcwyrm
• tōþwyrm
• fāgwyrm
• inwyrm
• wyrmhord
• wyrmlīċ
• wyrmfāh
• wyrmġeard

Descendants

• Middle English worm (→ English worm; Scots worm; Scots wirm)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 1289
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wyrm
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 600
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 476
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 412
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 6.20
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. 329
9. ^ a b c d e 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 d Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 427
11. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 236
12. ^ 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. wyrm
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. 412
14. ^ 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
15. ^ 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
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. 344