*þus

Reconstruction

De Vaan sets up West Germanic *þus "thus" as the source of the Dutch adverb and its Old Saxon, Old Frisian and Old English cognates,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form, naming no Proto-Germanic ancestor.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *þus (“so”) in Köbler's reconstruction, an adverb of unknown etymology,^[3] and Boutkan and Siebinga trace the word to a Proto-Germanic element *þu-.^[4]

Morphology

An adverb.^[5][6] Old High German, Old Saxon, Middle Low German and Middle Dutch also have a variant with initial s-, Old High German sus (“so”) in the Hildebrandslied.^[6]

Evidence

The adverb is attested in Old English þus, Old Frisian thus and Old Saxon thus,^[1] and Old Dutch has thus in Williram's commentary of about 1100.^[7] Old High German dus occurs only once, in the De Heinrico of the 11th century, a text in a Franconian dialect of central Germany, and the derived adjective once in a Middle Franconian gloss of the 9th century.^[6] Boutkan and Siebinga count the formation among those found only in part of West Germanic, while reporting Schmidt's view that the blend sus shows it for Old High German too.^[4]

Competing analyses

Sievers held *þus to be the older form and traced it to the demonstrative stem *to-, and Lerchner agreed.^[6] Berr likewise connects it with the demonstrative.^[8] According to Schmidt, *þu- either matches a Sanskrit particle meaning "but, rather", or was formed after the Proto-Germanic word for "how", with an *-s from a weak by-form of the word for "so".^[6] EWA notes that a preform *þu-se with final -s would have to have been stressed at the time of Verner's law and weakly stressed later, since it shows no a-umlaut; it also discusses the alternative that sus is the original form, from *swe-se.^[6] Boutkan and Siebinga find *þu-sa, with a by-form of *swa "thus" without w, problematic because of the missing a-umlaut, prefer an element *-se as in Latin sed (“but”), and call a connection with the s of the word for "this" speculative; for *þu- they consider a Proto-Indo-European particle *tu, for which only a Sanskrit word meaning "now, but" is evidence.^[4]

Meanings

1. thus, in this way^[1][2]

Derivatives

• EWA traces Old High German duslīh (“such”), Old English þyslic and Old Frisian thusk to a preform *þus-līka-, with the adverb as its first element.^[6]

Reflexes

• Old English: þus (“so, thus”)^[5]
• Old Frisian: thus (“so”)^[9]
• Old Saxon: thus (“thus, so”)^[8]
• Old Dutch: thus (“thus, as follows”)^[7]
• Old High German: dus (“in the following way”)^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2017), The Dawn of Dutch: Language Contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, NOWELE Supplement Series 30, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 329
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *þus
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *þus
4. ^ a b c Boutkan, Dirk; Siebinga, Sjoerd Michiel (2005), Old Frisian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 1, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. aldus
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. þus
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. dus
7. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. thus
8. ^ a b Berr, Samuel (1971), An Etymological Glossary to the Old Saxon Heliand, Berne / Frankfurt: Herbert Lang, p. 423
9. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. thus