weyver

Forms

weyver (verb; the infinitive also used as a noun, oblique plural weyvers)^[1]

• waiver, wayver, weiver, weifer, wever, veyver, vaiver, guaiver, gaiver^[2][3]

The AND heads the word waiver; continental and Norman texts write it gaiver or guesver.^[2][4][5]

Etymology

It is a Norman and Anglo-Norman word, borrowed from Old Norse veifa (“to swing about, wave”) or from a related North Germanic word, according to Wiktionary.^[1] The FEW puts it in the family of the Old Norse noun veif (“something loose and flapping”), beside the Norman adjective gaif and the Anglo-Norman waif “lost, unclaimed”.^[6] Wartburg notes that the same family lives in southern Italy, where it is traced to Lombardic *waifa (“ownerless land”); since in northern France the words are almost confined to Normandy and England, he posits an Old Norse or Old English counterpart of that word as the source.^[6] De Gorog cites the OED for the Old Norse origin of the noun, and the Latin of the customals of Normandy has Medieval Latin vaiva and gaiva.^[7] Etymonline also calls the source Scandinavian, akin to the same Norse verb, which it traces to Proto-Germanic *waif- and Proto-Indo-European *weip- (“to turn, vacillate”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is the AND's first citation, from 1212.^[2] The dictionary's first senses are to give up a claim to something and to leave a place, person or property behind.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The AND's senses run from giving up a right to a holding, renouncing and rejecting, through the feudal sense of forsaking a duty or, for a lord, abdicating a right, to sending away, banishing and, mostly of women, outlawing; in pleading it is to waive or withdraw an argument, plea or claim.^[2] The Year Books of Edward I have Nous weyvons nostre primer chalenge “we waive our first challenge”.^[3] On the Continent the verb survived in Normandy as gaiver “to renounce a right”, used of widows giving up a succession in the 1470s,^[5] and in the custom of Orléans for ceding the use of a house to the lord of the fee for a year.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1212 – the earliest Anglo-Norman citation in the AND.^[2]
• c. 1300 – Middle English weiven.^[8]
• 1304 – gaiver in the Year Books.^[4]
• 1470–1472 – gayva “renounced” in a Norman register.^[5]
• 1620s – the English noun waiver, from the Anglo-French infinitive.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. to abandon a claim to; to leave behind (a place, person or property).^[2]
2. to relinquish one's right to (a holding or possession); to renounce, reject.^[2][1]
3. (feudal) to forsake (a duty); of a lord, to give up (a right or obligation).^[2]
4. to dismiss, banish; of a woman, to outlaw.^[2]
5. (law) to waive, withdraw (an argument, plea or claim).^[2]
6. (Orléans) to cede the use of a house to the lord of the fee for a year.^[3]

Noun

1. (law) a waiver.^[1][2]

Anglo-Norman

This is an Anglo-Norman word of the law courts, recorded in England from 1212; the AND lists the infinitive as a noun and the past participle as an adjective and a noun beside the verb.^[2] Middle English weiven comes, according to the MED, from the Anglo-French forms waiver, weiver and veiver, variants of Old French gaiver, with Anglo-Latin waiviare beside them;^[9] Etymonline dates it to about 1300, and it is the source of the English word waive.^[8] The English noun waiver continues the Anglo-French use of the infinitive as a noun.^[8]

Descendants

• Middle French gaiver^[5]
• Middle English weiven (borrowed; → English waive)^[9][8]
• English waiver (borrowed)^[1][8]

Related words

• gaif
• waif

Usage notes

Godefroy and Greimas head the word gaiver, the AND waiver and the DMF gaiver.^[3][4][2][5] Its record is almost entirely insular and legal.^[2]

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 j k l m n o Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. waiver
3. ^ a b c d e Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 4:206
4. ^ a b c d Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. gaiver
5. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. gaiver
6. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17:421
7. ^ de Gorog, Ralph (1958), The Scandinavian Element in French and Norman, New Haven: the author (revision of a Columbia University dissertation, 1954), p. 83
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ 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)