halge

Middle English

Adjective

halge

  1. (chiefly Early Middle English) Alternative form of holy (sacred)

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *hailagā.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈxɑːl.je/, [ˈhɑːɫ.je]

Noun

hālġe f

  1. holy woman, (female) saint
    • Cynewulf, "Juliana"
      Sēo hālġe stōd unġewemde wlite. Næs hire feax ne fell fȳre ġemǣled.
      The saint stood with unblemished beauty. Neither her hair nor her skin were marked by the fire.

Usage notes
  • The table below shows the inherited distribution of g, with palatalization between original front vowels. At the time palatalization occurred, the nominative singular would been *hālægǣ [ˈhɑː.læ.ɣæː], with a medial *æ that was later syncopated creating the environment for palatalization. Meanwhile, the genitive plural would have been *hālægōnā [ˈhɑː.læ.ɣoː.nɑː]—or possibly *hālæganā [ˈhɑː.læ.ɣɑ.nɑː], with the short *a already leveled in from the masculine n-stem declension. In either case, the genitive plural would not have been palatalized.[1]

Declension
Declension of halge (weak)
Case Singular Plural
nominative hālġe hālgan
accusative hālgan hālgan
genitive hālgan hālgena
dative hālgan hālgum

Coordinate terms

References
  1. Ringe, Donald, Taylor, Ann (2014) The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 154
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