*skulu

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *skulu "troop, group" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skulō (“troop”), as Wiktionary presumes while calling the origin uncertain.^[1] Köbler sets up the Proto-Germanic feminine *skulō "troop" on the evidence of the Old English and Old Saxon words.^[2] Wiktionary takes *skulu for a partial doublet of *skalu (“shell, husk”).^[3] Berr thinks of a root meaning "to cut", a crowd being a division.^[4]

Morphology

A feminine ō-stem.^[5][6] The Heliand has the nominative singular scola and the dative singular scolu.^[6]

Evidence

The word is attested in Old English sċolu, with a variant scealu,^[5][7] and in Old Saxon skola, ten times in the Heliand.^[6] Köbler also lists Middle Low German schole.^[2] Old High German has no such word: Köbler sets up only a hypothetical *skola after the Old Saxon one.^[8]

Competing analyses

Köbler labels Old Saxon skola a loan from Latin schola, while also tracing it to Proto-Germanic *skulō.^[6] Holthausen keeps the two Old English words apart: sċolu as a form of scōl (“school”), and sċolu "troop", which he compares with the Old Saxon word.^[9]

Meanings

1. troop, group^[1]

Old English also used the word for "crowd, multitude, army",^[9] and Old Saxon for "crowd, heap".^[6]

Reflexes

• Old English: sċolu (“troop, crowd, multitude, army”)^[9]
• Old Saxon: skola (“crowd, troop”)^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *skulu
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *skulō
3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *skalu
4. ^ Berr, Samuel (1971), An Etymological Glossary to the Old Saxon Heliand, Berne / Frankfurt: Herbert Lang, p. s.v. skola
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scolu
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. skola
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scealu
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. skola
9. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. scolu