*dūnā

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs a feminine *dūnā "sand dune; hill".^[1]

Etymology

Wiktionary calls its origin uncertain and disputed: it takes it, with doubt, as inherited from Proto-Germanic *dūnaz (“accumulation, heap”), or else as a loan from Celtic.^[1] Orel sets up Proto-Germanic *đūnaz, borrowed from Gaulish, and compares the Celtic place names in ⟨-dūnum⟩;^[2] Köbler has *dūna-, *dūnaz "dune" and compares Old Irish dún (“castle”).^[3]

Morphology

A feminine noun, Wiktionary's ō-stem.^[1] Old English dūn is feminine or masculine,^[4] and Old High German dūna a feminine ō- or n-stem.^[5]

Evidence

The word is attested as Old English dūn "height, hill, mountain",^[4] Old Frisian dūne "dune",^[6] and Old High German dūna "dune, promontory", which is found only in two Alemannic glossaries, one of Sankt Gallen from the 9th or 10th century and one of Schlettstadt from the 12th.^[5] In the Low Countries the word first appears in Latin texts: the Annals of Saint-Bertin report under 839 a flood in Frisia that rose nearly to the height of the sand hills "which they call ⟨dunos⟩",^[5][7] and ONW records Old Dutch dunarum in the charters of the counts of Flanders of 1067–1135.^[8] EWA calls Medieval Latin ⟨duna⟩ a Latinisation of the North Sea Germanic word, which first appears on the Dutch and Kentish coasts.^[5]

Competing analyses

Some derive Old High German dūna, like Middle Dutch dune, from Old English dūn: Heeroma held that settlers from England used the Old English word for the sand hills of the Flemish coast about 1000, but EWA points to the earlier record of 839 and finds no sign of English origin in the Old High German gloss, which it takes for most likely a native word.^[5] It then leaves two possibilities open: either the Old High German and Old English words, from *đūnō(n)-, belong with the words for "dune" in Middle Dutch, Middle Low German and Old Frisian, or, because they mean "hill", they are a separate word.^[5] If the words are one, EWA takes "dune" for the secondary sense, since "hill" is recorded earlier, and suggests a basic meaning "something heaped up", to which Old Irish dún (“fort, camp”) and the ⟨-dūnum⟩ of Celtic town names would probably also belong; otherwise "something blown together" is possible.^[5] Kroonen holds that Celtic *dūno- was borrowed into Germanic as *tūna- "fenced area", and that Old English dūn "hill" and the Dutch and Low German words for "dune" may be a later borrowing, though they have also been connected with the root *dū- "to blow".^[9] Orel takes the Germanic word itself for a loan from Gaulish.^[2]

Meanings

1. sand dune^[1]
2. hill^[1]

Old English used the word for "height, hill, mountain",^[4] while Old Frisian has it only as "dune"^[6] and Old High German as "dune, promontory".^[5]

Reflexes

• Old English: dūn (“height, hill, mountain”)^[4]
• Old Frisian: dūne (“dune”)^[6]
• Old Dutch: dūn (“dune”)^[8]
• Old High German: dūna (“dune, promontory”)^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dūnā
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 80
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *dūna-
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dūn
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. dûna
6. ^ a b c Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. dūne
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altniederfränkisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dūn
8. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. dūn
9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 526