 | This article includes alist of references,related reading, orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(July 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Thesuffix-lock inModern English survives only inwedlock andbridelock. It descends fromOld English-lāc, which was moreproductive, carrying a meaning of "action or proceeding, state of being, practice,ritual". As a noun, Old Englishlāc means "play, sport", deriving from an earlier meaning of "sacrificial ritual orhymn" (Proto-Germanic*laikaz). A putative term for a "hymn to the gods" (*ansu-laikaz) in earlyGermanic paganism is attested only as a personal name,Oslac.
The Old English nouns in-lāc includebrýdlāc "nuptials" (from which the now obsoletebridelock),beadolāc,feohtlāc andheaðolāc "warfare",hǽmedlāc andwiflāc "sexual intercourse",réaflāc "robbery",wítelāc "punishment",wróhtlāc "calumny" besides thewedlāc "pledge-giving", also "nuptials" (from whichwedlock). A few compounds appear only inMiddle English, thusdweomerlak "occult practice,magic",ferlac "terror",shendlac "disgrace",treulac "faithfulness",wohlac "wooing", all of them extinct by the onset ofEarly Modern English. The earliest words taking the-lāc suffix were probably related to warfare, comparable to the-pleȝa (-play) suffix found in "swordplay".
The Old Norse counterpart is-leikr, loaned intoNorth Midlands Middle English as-laik, in theOrmulum appearing as-leȝȝe. The suffix came to be used synonymously with-nesse, forming abstract nouns, e.g.clænleȝȝe "cleanness".
The etymology of the suffix is the same as that of the nounlāc "play, sport", but also "sacrifice, offering", corresponding to obsolete Modern Englishlake (dialectallaik) "sport, fun, glee, game", cognate to Gothiclaiks "dance", Old Norseleikr "game, sport" (origin of Englishlark "play, joke, folly") and Old High Germanleih "play, song, melody." Ultimately, the word descends fromProto-Germanic*laikaz. Old Englishlícian ("to please", Modern Englishlike) is from the same root. In modern English, the noun has been reintroduced through the cognate Swedishlek as a specialist term referring tomating behavior.
Thus, the suffix originates as a second member in nominal compounds, and referred to "actions or proceedings, practice, ritual" identical with the nounlāc "play, sport, performance" (obsolete Modern Englishlake "fun, sport, glee", obsolete or dialectal Modern Germanleich).
Only found in Old English is the meaning of '(religious) offering,sacrifice,human sacrifice,' inBeowulf 1583f. of the Danes killed byGrendel, inLambeth Homilies (c. 1175) of the sacrifice ofChrist. In theAnglo-Saxon Gospel (c. 1000) inMatthew 8:4 forδωρον, denoting an offering according toMosaic law. In the 13th century it appears to lose its religious connotations and denotes gifts more generally, of the offerings of theThree Magi (Ancrene Riwle 152,c. 1225), and inGenesis and Exodus (c. 1225, 1798) of the gifts sent byJacob toEsau. From the 14th century, under the influence ofto lake "to move quickly, to leap, to fight", the noun comes to mean "fun, sport" exclusively. In this meaning, it survives into the 19th century in North English dialect in the compoundlake-lass "female playmate."
The word is also a compound member ingiven names, inSigelac,Hygelac andOslac.
Oslac has Scandinavian and continental cognates,Asleikr andAnsleih. Based on this, Koegel (1894) assumes that the term*ansu-laikaz may go back to Common Germanic times, denoting aLeich für die Götter, a hymn, dance or play for the gods in earlyGermanic paganism. Grimm (s.v.Leich) compares the meaning of Greekχορος, denoting first the ceremonial procession to the sacrifice, but also ritual dance and hymns pertaining to religious ritual.
Hermann (1928)[1] identifies as such*ansulaikaz the hymns sung by the Germans to their god of war mentioned byTacitus and the victory songs of theBatavi mercenaries serving underGaius Julius Civilis after the victory overQuintus Petillius Cerialis in theBatavian rebellion of 69 AD, and also the "abominable song" toWodan sung by theLombards at their victory celebration in 579. The sacrificial animal was a goat, around whose head the Lombards danced in a circle while singing their victory hymn. As their Christian prisoners refused to "adore the goat", they were all killed (Hermann presumes) as an offering to Wodan.[1]
