Structure

Data compilation

The database draws on the lexicographical tradition of Old English. More specifically, it is based mainly on Hall’s A Concise Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon (including Supplement) and, secondarily, on Bosworth-Toller’s An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (including the Supplement by Toller and the Addenda by Campbell), Sweet’s The Student Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon and The Dictionary of Old English. The default spelling of citation forms and alternative spellings corresponds to Hall’s A Concise Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon. Otherwise, the source is acknowledged, as in ābernan, ābyrnan (DOE), ādrīgan, ādrygan (BT), ādrigan (BT), ādrugian (BT), ādruwian (BT), antecrīst (Sweet), etc. Some translations and/or alternative spellings follow The Dictionary of Old English (A–G): ādihtnian, āsamnian, āstrēowian, ātrucian, āwǣgnian, beforancuman, beforangecuman, betwēohceorfan, betwuxcuman, dā, dǣdbana, dǣdfruma, dæg, dæghwāmlīce, dēaðbǣrnes, dēma, dēma, dōere, ðōhe, efnegecyrran, efnegeheaðorian, eftādrīfan, eftbecweðan, firenwyrhta, forðhebban, forðwegan, forwyrhta, (ge)andspyrian, (ge)byrgan, (ge)costian, (ge)dēman, (ge)dēman, (ge)gilda, (ge)wyrhta, gewyrhta, handdǣda, lāðgetēona, lǣstend, lēaswyrcend, māndǣda, mānfolm, mānfordǣdla, mānwyrhta, nāhtfremmend, scyllan, tēonsmið, tēonword, unrihtwyrcend, unrihtwyrhta, wamsceaða, welwyrcend, wirgend, wyrcend. The inflectional classes and forms have been extracted from the dictionaries cited above (except The Dictionary of Old English). The comparatives and superlatives of adjectives and adverbs draw on Seelig (1930), while the subclasses of strong verbs follow Krygier (1994).

Database entries

The database contains 31298 files, which fall into the following categories:

By initial letter, the files in NerthusV3 can be broken down as is shown below (the grapheme eth <ð / Ð> subsumes the thorn <þ / Þ>):

Parameters & coding

NerthusV3. Online Lexical Database of Old English files 31298 entries, for which the citation form, alternative spellings, category, translation, inflectional morphology and inflectional forms are provided, as can be seen below:

The information presented in the translation field synthesizes the definitions available from Bosworth-Toller’s An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary and Hall’s A Concise Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon. The various meaning definitions found in these dictionaries have been unified on two principles: polysemy and increasing specificity. Within a meaning definition, commas separate related instantiations of a sense while semicolons distinguish senses, as cāflīce 'quickly, hastily, promptly; vigorously, stoutly; boldly, manfully'. Both inside and across senses, definitions have been organized along two scales, namely hypernym-hyperonym (this is usually the case with nouns and adjectives) and troponymy (mainly in verbs), as the examples below illustrate:

tācn
Noun
token, sign, mark, indication, symbol, signal, symptom; suggestion; portent, wonder, marvel, miracle, prodigy; prognostic; evidence, demonstration, proof; standard, banner, ensign; credential; monument; sign of the Zodiac.

macian
Verb
to do, make, produce, form, construct, fashion, frame; to act, perform, behave, fare; to prepare, arrange; to cause, bring about; to use, manage; to compare, liken; to transform; to conclude.

Finally, hypothetical predicates have been proposed, although they have been maximally constrained. They have been limited to derivational morphology and, for a hypothetical form to be created, it has been deemed necessary that the source and the target of lexical derivation as well as the derivational process itself are well attested. For example, in hleoðrian > hleoðriend > hleoðriendlic_ø > glīwhleoðriendlic 'musical' the hypothetical predicate is the path from hleoðriend to glīwhleoðriendlic and the derivational process involving the present participle of a weak verb with the suffix -lic is attested in other derivatives like gītsiendlic 'insatiable', līciendlic 'agreeable', mynegiendlic 'hortatory', sciriendlic 'derivative', and ðrōwiendlic 'suffering'. With these constraints, a total of 65 hypothetical predicates have been defined.

References

Bosworth, J. & T. N. Toller. 1973 (1898). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Campbell, A. 1972. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Enlarged Addenda and Corrigenda. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Hall, J. R. C. 1996 (1896). A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Healey, A diPaolo (ed.). 2008. The Dictionary of Old English in Electronic Form A–G. Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto.

Krygier, M. 1994. The Disintegration of the English Strong Verb System. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Seelig, F. 1930. Die Komparation der Adjektiva und Adverbien im Altenglischen. Heidelberg: Winter.

Sweet, H. 1976 (1896). The Student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Toller, T. N. 1966 (1921). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press.