*kirikā

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *kirikā for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kuriakón, “the Lord's (house)”).^[1] Following Feulner, they hold it to be the only word borrowed into Proto-West Germanic directly from Greek: since it never became current in Latin, it must have come straight from Greek, and more than that cannot be said with certainty.^[1] EWA derives it from Late Greek κυρικόν (kurikón, “house of God”), recorded from the 4th century, a vulgar form of the same word.^[2] Green accounts for the differences: the stress moved to the first syllable by the Germanic rule, the loss of the Greek medial -a- has parallels in Vulgar Greek, the feminine gender was taken over from Latin ecclesia and basilica, and the i of the first syllable can be explained from Greek or from Latin.^[3] In Old English both velars were palatalized, and the word became Old English ċiriċe through *kirikǣ.^[4][5]

Morphology

A feminine n-stem.^[1][6] Old High German inflects it as an ō-stem and as an n-stem.^[2]

Evidence

The word is attested in Old Frisian tzerke, Old Saxon kirika and Old High German kirihha,^[1][7] and in Old English already from the late 7th century; it was later carried to Old Norse.^[3] Old Dutch has kirika in the charters of the see of Utrecht.^[8] Green finds its earliest records in place names from the beginning of the 8th century, from Bavaria but also from Alsace, Francia and Frisia.^[9]

Competing analyses

Green argues against transmission by the Goths: Gothic used the loan of Greco-Latin ecclesia for both "assembly" and "house of God", with no trace of a loan from the Greek word, the Slavic term could as well come from German, Gothic Christian words in German cluster in Bavaria while the early place names are spread over the west, and the early Old English form is hard to explain by such a route.^[9] He prefers a western route: the word passed into Frankish in the 4th century, presumably at Trier, through Germanic mercenaries, and spread further with the Frankish occupation of Cologne and Trier in the 5th century, its later spread to the other German dialects following Christianity and Frankish power.^[10]

Meanings

1. church^[4][11]

Old High German also used the word for "temple, sanctuary" and for the congregation of the faithful.^[2]

Reflexes

• Old English: ċiriċe (“church”)^[12]
• Old Frisian: tzerke (“church”)^[7]
• Old Saxon: kirika (“church”)^[6]
• Old Dutch: kirika (“church”)^[8]
• Old High German: kirihha (“church, temple, congregation”)^[13]

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. 134
2. ^ a b c 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. kiricha
3. ^ a b Green, D. H. (1998), Language and History in the Early Germanic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 298
4. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 204
5. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 210
6. ^ a b Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. kirika
7. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. tzerke
8. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. kirika
9. ^ a b Green, D. H. (1998), Language and History in the Early Germanic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 299
10. ^ Green, D. H. (1998), Language and History in the Early Germanic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 300
11. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *kirikā
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cirice
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. kirihha