*flagil

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *flagil "flail" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin flagellum (“scourge, whip; later flail”).^[2][3][4] EWA explains the West Germanic form by a secondary adaptation to the masculine names of tools in -il.^[2] EWA describes the Latin word as a diminutive of flagrum (“scourge, whip”).^[2]

Morphology

A masculine a-stem in Old High German and Old Saxon,^[2][3] and a strong masculine in Old English.^[4] Köbler leaves the gender of the Old Frisian word uncertain, masculine or feminine.^[5]

Evidence

The word is attested as Old English fligel, a late form, which EWA suggests stands for *flegil,^[2][4] Old Frisian flaila, also flēgel,^[6] Old Saxon flegil, glossing Latin tribulum,^[3] and Old High German flegil, only in glosses from the 10th century.^[2] The Latin word also passed into Old French flael, French fléau, and into Irish and Welsh.^[2] The Danish and Swedish words are late borrowings from German.^[2]

Competing analyses

Wiktionary calls the origin disputed: it gives the borrowing from Latin flagellum as the view of most sources, and as a less likely alternative a native formation from Proto-Germanic *flagilaz, to the verb Proto-Germanic *flahaną (“to skin, to flay”).^[1] EWA calls mistaken the earlier attempts, as in Falk and Torp, to trace Old High German flegil straight to a Proto-Indo-European root for "to strike", and rejects a separate Germanic form for "flail" behind Danish plejl and a Swabian form with ⟨pf-⟩, which it explains as a borrowing and a dialect variant.^[2]

Meanings

1. flail^[1][3]

Old High German used the word for the threshing flail, glossing Latin tribula and tribulum.^[2]

Reflexes

• Old English: fligel (“flail”)^[4]
• Old Frisian: flaila (“flail”)^[6]
• Old Saxon: flegil (“flail”)^[3]
• Old High German: flegil (“threshing flail”)^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *flagil
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. flegil
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. flėgil
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. flygel
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. flail
6. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. flaila