*sap

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *sap "juice, sap" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1] EWA sets up West Germanic *sapa- as the source of the Old English, Middle Low German and Dutch words.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *safō (“sap, juice”) in Kroonen's analysis: he reconstructs a Proto-Germanic masculine n-stem *saf/ppan-, nominative *safō, genitive *sappaz, and takes the three stems *saf/ban-, *sappa- and *sapa- found in the daughters for the result of its dialectal break-up.^[3] EWA allows the same explanation: West Germanic *sapa-, a possible *sappa- and North Germanic *saf/ƀ- may all come from one paradigm *saf/ƀ-an- : *saf/ƀ-n-, in which Kluge's law gave *sapp-, with *sap- as a levelled form.^[2] Kroonen compares Old Norse safi and Latin sapa (“must boiled down”).^[3]

Morphology

A neuter a-stem in Old English,^[4][2] and masculine or neuter in Old High German.^[2] Kroonen gives the Old English noun as masculine and takes the neuter of Dutch sap for secondary, from its collective sense.^[3] EWA leaves open whether Old High German also had a form ⟨sapf⟩ with a geminate, since its spellings with ⟨ph⟩ may stand for the fricative, and no other language shows a trace of the geminate.^[2]

Evidence

The word is attested in Old English sæp^[4] and Old High German saf, from the 10th century in glosses and in Notker.^[2] Tiefenbach records Old Saxon sap once, written ⟨sab⟩ for Latin suber in a Trier glossary.^[5] EWA notes that this manuscript is classed both as Middle Franconian and as Old Saxon.^[2] EWA cites no Old Frisian or Old Dutch form, only Early Middle Dutch sap and Middle Low German sap.^[2]

Competing analyses

EWA leaves the origin open.^[2] On one view the West Germanic words are a horticultural loan from Latin sapa (“must boiled down, must syrup”), which in parts of the Romance area came to mean the sap of trees and plants; the North Germanic words such as Old Norse safi would then be only indirectly related.^[2] Köbler also treats Proto-Germanic *sapa- as a loan from the Latin word.^[6] On the other view the words are inherited, either from Kroonen's n-stem paradigm or, if West Germanic *sapa- is kept apart from the North Germanic words, from a pre-form that EWA compares with words in Sanskrit.^[2][3] Wiktionary derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *sap- "to taste, perceive; juice",^[1] while EWA keeps the words for "sap" apart from that root on semantic grounds.^[2]

Meanings

1. sap, juice^[1][3]

EWA infers that the original meaning was the sap of plants and trees, as the many Old High German compounds with plant names show.^[2] Old English also used the word for "broth".^[4]

Reflexes

• Old English: sæp (“sap, broth”)^[4]
• Old Saxon: sap (“plant sap”)^[5]
• Old High German: saf (“sap, moisture, bast”)^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *sap
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. saf
3. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 420
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sæp
5. ^ a b Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. sap
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *sapa-