*pulwī

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *pulwī "pillow, cushion, bolster" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pulvīnus (“cushion, pillow”),^[2][3][4] which Wiktionary takes with the suffix *-ī.^[1] EWA calls it an early loan.^[2] Green links it with the Roman trade in goose down from Germania, which also brought Latin plūma (“feather”).^[4] Ringe and Taylor count it as an early Latin loanword in Old English.^[3][5]

Morphology

A neuter ja-stem in Old High German and Old Saxon, beside Old High German pfuluwīn, an a-stem,^[2][6] and an i-stem in Old English, whose w was lost before i in the nominative and accusative but kept in the other cases; either stem was then generalised through the paradigm.^[2]

Evidence

The word is attested as Old English pylwe, also pyle and pylu,^[7] Old Saxon pulwi^[6] and Old High German pfuluwi, from glosses of the end of the 8th or the beginning of the 9th century.^[2] Old Saxon also has the compound hôvidpuli (“pillow”).^[8] EWA also lists Old Frisian pel(e) (“pillow, cushion”),^[2] but Köbler takes the Old Frisian word for a borrowing of Middle Low German.^[9] The Danish and Swedish words are borrowings from Middle Low German.^[2]

Competing analyses

EWA finds that all the West Germanic nouns except Old High German pfuluwīn show a shortening of Latin pulvīnus to *pulvi, typical of Latin loanwords, followed by derivations in the separate languages.^[2] Ringe and Taylor instead derive Old English pyle from pre-Old English *pulwīn, through *pylwī and *pylī: the final *-n was lost after *ī in the ancestor of Old English late enough to affect this early loan, and *w was lost before *ī.^[3][5] They note that the loss of final *-n after *ī was widespread in West Germanic but not uniform.^[5]

Meanings

1. pillow, cushion^[1][4]

Old High German used the word for "cushion, pillow, small bolster",^[2] and Old Saxon for a feather pillow.^[6]

Derivatives

• *haubidapulwī "pillow", which Wiktionary reconstructs;^[1] Köbler compares Old Saxon hôvidpuli with Old High German houbitpfuluwi.^[8]

Reflexes

• Old English: pylwe (“pillow, cushion”)^[7]
• Old Saxon: pulwi (“feather pillow”)^[6]
• Old High German: pfuluwi (“cushion, pillow, small bolster”)^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *pulwī
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. pfuluwi
3. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 260
4. ^ a b c Green, D. H. (1998), Language and History in the Early Germanic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 227
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. 340
6. ^ a b c d Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. pulwi
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. pylwe
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hôvidpuli
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. pēl