*banki

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *banki "bench" for Proto-West Germanic,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”), which Ringe and Taylor cite as a Proto-Northwest Germanic form,^[1] Kroonen by its stem *banki- and Orel as *ƀankiz.^[3][4] In the prehistory of Old English the word passed through *bąnċi and *bænċi to *bænċ, whence Old English benċ: like the other i-stems with a heavy root syllable, it lost its stem vowel.^[1]

Morphology

An i-stem.^[5][6] Old English, Old Frisian and Old Saxon have it as a feminine,^[7][8][6] Old High German as a feminine and also, especially in Upper German, as a masculine,^[5] while Kroonen gives the Proto-Germanic word as masculine.^[3] The Heliand has the dative plural benkiun.^[6] EWA finds an i-stem as the common base of all the dialects, but Old English hōbanca (“couch”) and Old Norse bakki (“rise, hill; riverbank”) point to an old n-stem, which also underlies the loans into Romance.^[5]

Evidence

The word is attested as Old English benċ, Old Frisian bank and benk, Old Saxon bank and Old High German bank.^[1] Old High German has it from the 9th century, with the nominative plural ⟨penchi⟩.^[5] EWA allows that it may be hidden in Lombard personal names such as Panchoardus, of the 9th century.^[5] Gamillscheg derives French banc, recorded from the 11th century, from Frankish *bank.^[9]

Competing analyses

Gamillscheg rejects a West Germanic *bank as the source of the French word for reasons of meaning, and a Gothic *banks as well; he takes the Frankish form with final -i given by Bloch and Wartburg for a plural, and finds an old Germanic *banki, from before the loss of -i after a long root syllable, historically unlikely as the source.^[9]

Meanings

1. bench^[1][2]

Old Saxon also used the word for "seat".^[6][10]

Reflexes

• Old English: benċ (“bench”)^[7]
• Old Frisian: bank (“bench”)^[11]
• Old Saxon: bank (“seat, stool”)^[10]
• Old High German: bank (“bench”)^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 287
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *banki
3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 51
4. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 36
5. ^ a b c d e 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. banc
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. bank
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. bėnc
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. bank
9. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 86
10. ^ a b Berr, Samuel (1971), An Etymological Glossary to the Old Saxon Heliand, Berne / Frankfurt: Herbert Lang, p. 47
11. ^ Bremmer, Rolf H., Jr. (2009), An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 189
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. bank