*ohsō

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *ohsō "ox" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1] Ringe and Taylor do not print the nominative singular, but they reconstruct the Proto-West Germanic nominative plural *ohsini, with the *o of the nominative singular.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *uhsô (“ox”),^[3][4] which Ringe and Taylor write *uhsō̄, Kroonen cites by its stem *uhsan-, and Köbler gives as *uhsō-, *uhsōn.^[5][4][6] Throughout Northwest Germanic, stressed *u was lowered to *o when the next syllable had a nonhigh vowel, and *uhsō̄ is one of Ringe and Taylor's examples, continued by Old English oxa, Old Frisian oxa and Old High German ohso.^[3] Their Proto-Germanic paradigm has the accusative singular *uhsanų, the nominative plural *uhsiniz and an oblique stem *uhsn-; the plural *uhsiniz became Proto-West Germanic *ohsini, taking its *o from the nominative singular.^[5][2]

Morphology

A masculine n-stem.^[4][7] Ringe and Taylor illustrate the Proto-West Germanic masculine n-stems with "human": nominative singular *gumō, accusative *guman, genitive and dative-instrumental *gumini, nominative plural *guman, genitive plural *gumanō, dative-instrumental plural *gumum.^[8] The inherited *-ō stayed the masculine nominative singular ending, and the ⟨-in⟩ of some older Old High German texts argues that the genitive and dative singular still had that ablaut grade in Proto-West Germanic.^[9] For "ox", Old English keeps the plural oxan beside œxen and the genitive plural oxna, while the paradigms of Old Frisian and Old High German have been regularized.^[5] Mercian œxen and late Northumbrian exin continue *ohsini with i-umlaut, against West Saxon oxan.^[2]

Evidence

The noun is attested in Old English oxa, Old Frisian oxa and Old High German ohso,^[3] the last from the third quarter of the 8th century,^[7] and in Old Dutch osso, in the accusative plural ⟨ohsson⟩ glossing Latin boves in the Old Low Franconian psalms of the 10th century.^[10] For Old Saxon, EWA infers *ohso from the compounds Old Saxon ohsineri and ohsinhirdi "oxherd";^[7] both are recorded in glosses,^[11][12] and Köbler adds place names such as ⟨Ossenfeld⟩.^[13] The oldest record is a Malberg gloss of the Lex Salica: ONW lists ⟨ohsino⟩ for Latin bovem in the Pactus legis Salicae, dated 507–768.^[10] Van Helten gives the readings ⟨ohseno⟩, in Herold's text, ⟨obosino⟩ and ⟨ocxino⟩, with ⟨-in⟩ as the accusative ending, as forms of Salian Frankish *ochso; the spellings with ⟨h⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ point to a fricative pronunciation of the consonant before s in Salian Frankish as recorded.^[14]

Meanings

1. ox^[1][3]

Old High German also used the word for "bull" and "male bovine".^[7]

Reflexes

• Old English: oxa (“ox”)^[15]
• Old Frisian: oxa (“ox”)^[16]
• Old Dutch: osso (“ox”)^[10]
• Old High German: ohso (“ox, bull”)^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *ohsō
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 226
3. ^ 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. 27
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 558
5. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 34
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *uhsō-
7. ^ 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. ohso
8. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 117
9. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 117–118
10. ^ a b c Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. osso
11. ^ Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. ohsineri
12. ^ Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. ohsinhirdi
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *ohso
14. ^ van Helten, Willem Lodewijk (1900), Zu den malbergischen Glossen und den salfränkischen Formeln und Lehnwörtern der Lex Salica, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 25, 225–542, p. 284
15. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. oxa
16. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. oxa