*stinkwan

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *stinkwan for Proto-West Germanic,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[2] It continues inherited from Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną (“to knock, to thrust”),^[1][3] which Kroonen cites by its stem *stinkwan- and Köbler as *stenkwan, *stinkwan.^[3][4] EWA sets up the Proto-Germanic present stem *stenku̯e/a-.^[5] Ringe and Taylor list the verb among the examples of the Old English loss of *w after a velar that did not begin the word, *stinkwan becoming Old English stincan.^[6]

Morphology

A strong verb of class III.^[5][7] Old High German has the past singular stank, the past plural ⟨stunkun⟩ and the past participle ⟨gistunkan⟩.^[5]

Evidence

Ringe and Taylor cite the West Germanic verb from Old English, Old High German stinkan and modern West Frisian stjonke (“to stink”).^[1][6] Old High German has it from the end of the 8th century, in glosses and in Otfrid and Notker.^[5] The Old Dutch verb stinkan is recorded as ⟨stincan⟩, glossing Latin odorabunt in the Old Low and Middle Franconian psalms of the 10th century, and in Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs of about 1100.^[8] Holthausen and Kroonen also cite Old Saxon stinkan.^[9][3] EWA lists modern West Frisian, Saterland and North Frisian forms but no Old Frisian one.^[5]

Competing analyses

Ringe and Taylor count the verb among at least three words inherited from Proto-Germanic that changed their meaning dramatically in West Germanic: Proto-Germanic "to knock", compare Old Norse støkkva (“to leap, to plunge, to burst”), became Proto-West Germanic "to smell".^[1] Old English stincan keeps the sense "to rise", of dust, only once, in the Riddles, and otherwise means "to smell".^[1] EWA sees a gradual development instead: the basic meaning was probably "to push", from which "to spray, to fly up" and then "to give off a smell, to stink" arose, the particles given off by a smelling thing being thought to fly through the air into the nose.^[5] It notes that the sense "to stink" also existed in North Germanic, as the dialect word Norwegian stokka (“to stink”) shows, though the Scandinavian verbs meaning "to stink" are probably all borrowed from Low German, and that the sense "to fly up" has traces in West Germanic outside English too, in older Dutch and German phrases for a violent storm.^[5]

Meanings

1. to smell^[1][6]
2. to stink^[2]

Old English also used the verb for "to be fragrant" and "to sniff",^[9] and Old High German also for "to be fragrant" and "to rot".^[5]

Derivatives

• *stankwijan "to make stink", which Wiktionary reconstructs as a causative of the verb, behind Old English stenċan.^[10]
• Kroonen derives the i-stem *stunkwi- "hit; smell" from the strong verb, the source of Old English stenc (“smell”) and Old Saxon stunc.^[11]

Reflexes

• Old English: stincan (“to stink, to smell, to be fragrant, to sniff”)^[9]
• Old Dutch: stinkan (“to smell, to be fragrant”)^[8]
• Old High German: stinkan (“to smell, to stink, to be fragrant, to rot”)^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 128
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *stinkwan
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 480
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *stenkwan, *stinkwan
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. stinkan
6. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 215
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stincan
8. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. stinkan
9. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. stincan
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *stankwijan
11. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 487