*uʀdailī

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *uʀdailī "something handed or meted out; allotment, share" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- (“out”) + *dailijan (“to deal out, divide”), through the verb *uʀdailijan (“to mete out”), as Wiktionary derives it.^[1] Köbler instead refers the attested words to the prefix and the noun for "part": Old Saxon urdēli,^[2] Old High German urteili,^[3] Old Frisian ordēl^[4] and Old English ordāl.^[5] Boutkan and Siebinga take ordel "ordeal" as the prefix and -dēl "part, judicial district", but urdel "judgement, verdict" as the prefix and the verb dela.^[6]

Morphology

A neuter ja-stem in Old Saxon and Old High German;^[2][3] Old High German also has urteil, an a- or i-stem, and a feminine urteilī.^[7][8] In Old Frisian it is a neuter a-stem,^[4] in Old English a masculine or neuter a-stem.^[5]

Evidence

The word is found in all the old West Germanic languages.^{[5][4][2][9][3]} Old High German has urteili from a source dated before 743,^[3] and the Admonitio generalis of 789 has the same form, which Köbler lists as Old Low Franconian with a query for Old High German.^[10] In Old Dutch, ONW records the dative ⟨urdelle⟩, read ⟨urdeile⟩, in the Psalms of the 10th century, ⟨urteile⟩ in the Middle Franconian Rhyme Bible, and ⟨ordeil⟩ "ordeal" in a Latin context.^[9] ONW lists it as a compound of the noun for "part".^[9] Old Saxon has it in the Heliand and in a gloss to Psalm 111, where it renders Latin iūdicium.^[2] Gamillscheg derives French ordalie (“ordeal”), recorded from the 18th century, from Medieval Latin ordalium, a Latinised form of Frankish *ordaili, which he connects with Old Dutch urdeili and takes to have meant at first "true verdict that the judge gives".^[11]

Competing analyses

Köbler calls Old English ordāl a loan from Old Frankish,^[5] while Gamillscheg holds that the Old English word itself comes from Medieval Latin and is not the source of the French one;^[11] Wiktionary lists it as a descendant of *uʀdailī.^[1] Köbler asks whether the Old Saxon and Old High German senses "judgement, sentence" are semantic loans from Latin iūdicium, sententia and other words.^[2][3]

Meanings

1. something handed or meted out; allotment, share^[1]

The attested words mean "judgement, verdict, decision" in Old Saxon, Old High German and Old Frisian,^[2][3][4] and Old Frisian and Old English also "ordeal".^[4][5]

Derivatives

• *uʀdailijan "to judge", which Wiktionary reconstructs as formed from this noun with the verb suffix *-jan, and keeps apart from the homonymous verb "to mete out" from which it derives the noun.^[12]

Reflexes

• Old English: ordāl (“ordeal, trial by ordeal”)^[5]
• Old Frisian: ordēl (“judgement, verdict, ordeal, decision”)^[13]
• Old Saxon: urdēli (“judgement”)^[2]
• Old Dutch: urdēl (“judgement, ordeal”)^[9]
• Old High German: urteili (“judgement, decision, sentence”)^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *uʀdailī
2. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. urdêli
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. urteili
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ordêl
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ordāl
6. ^ Boutkan, Dirk; Siebinga, Sjoerd Michiel (2005), Old Frisian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 1, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ordel
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. urteil
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. urteilī
9. ^ a b c d Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. urdēl
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altniederfränkisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. urdeili
11. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 700
12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *uʀdailijan
13. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. ordēl