*dīk

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *dīk "earthwork" for Proto-West Germanic, with a query,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[2] It continues inherited from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (“dike, ditch”),^[3][4] which Kroonen cites by its stem *dīka-, Orel as *đīkōn and Köbler as *dīka-, *dīkaz.^[3][5][6] EWA sets up Proto-Germanic *đīka-, and a ja-stem *đīkija- for North Germanic.^[4] In Old English the final *k after a high front vowel was palatalized, giving Old English dīċ.^[1]

Morphology

A masculine a-stem.^[7][8] Old English has it as masculine and feminine,^[9] the masculine meaning "dike, dam, rampart" and the feminine "ditch";^[4] Kroonen reconstructs a neuter for Proto-Germanic.^[3]

Evidence

The word is attested as Old English dīċ, Old Frisian dīk and Old Saxon dīk,^[3] and Old Dutch has dic in a Latin context in the Flemish account of 1187 known as the Gros Brief.^[10] Old Saxon has it in the Freckenhorst register, where EWA takes it for a wall of stone or earth against flooding.^[4] On the High German side Ringe and Taylor cite only Middle High German tīch (“dry gully”); they hold that its sound shape and its very different meaning suggest a genuine cognate rather than a borrowing of Middle Dutch dijc, though the lack of any earlier High German record is puzzling.^[1]

Competing analyses

EWA takes Old High German dīh (“dike, dam, current”), found only in glosses, for a borrowing from Low German: as an original word of the North Sea coast (Dutch, Frisian, Low German), it travelled south into Central and Upper German with colonists from the Netherlands and the art of damming rivers.^[4] EWA finds Middle High German tīch (“pond”) from 1200, first naming small dry valleys, and denies that a variant ⟨tîh⟩ is attested in the glosses.^[4] Köbler, on the other hand, lists Old High German tīh "dike, dam, deep pool" from glosses of the end of the 8th century.^[11]

Meanings

1. earthwork^[1][2]

EWA traces the senses of the word to a basic meaning "something dug out", hence "ditch": digging a ditch raises a dam beside it, so "dam" and "ditch" can be two aspects of one piece of work, and what lies in a ditch could be named too, "swamp, pond, current".^[4] Old Frisian also used the word for "road".^[12]

Derivatives

• *dīkōn "to build a dike, to dig a ditch", which Wiktionary reconstructs;^[13] EWA cites Old English dīcian (“to dig”) and Old Frisian dika (“to dig, to dike”).^[4]

Reflexes

• Old English: dīċ (“dike, ditch, dam, rampart”)^[9]
• Old Frisian: dīk (“dike, road”)^[12]
• Old Saxon: dīk (“dike, dam”)^[8]
• Old Dutch: dic (“dike”)^[10]
• Old High German: dīh (“dike, dam, current”)^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 210
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dīk
3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 95
4. ^ 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. dîh
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 72
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *dīka-
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dīk
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dīk
9. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. dic
10. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. dīk
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. tīh
12. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. dīk
13. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dīkōn