*bainą
Runic: ᛒᚨᛁᚾᚨ Pronunciation: /ˈbɑi̯.nɑ̃/noun · neuter · a-stem
Meanings
- bone
- leg
Etymology
Of uncertain origin. Securely reconstructible for Northwest Germanic, and conventionally projected back to Proto-Germanic, probably originally meaning ‘bone’; ‘leg’ is a secondary metonymic development, paralleled cross-linguistically by expressions such as ‘bone of foot’ > ‘leg’ (Urban 2015: 374–375, 385; Witkowski & Brown 1985: 204–205). No secure extra-Germanic cognates are known. Derivation from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeiH-, through a *-no- formation interpreted as ‘cut-off bone’, has been proposed but is semantically and morphologically uncertain (Boutkan & Siebinga 2005: 37, s.v. ben); Kroonen (2013: 48) rejects this connection. Alternatively, de Vries (1977: 30, s.v. bein) connects the noun with North Germanic *bainaz, interpreting it as originally ‘the straight leg-bones’. Kroonen (2013: 48) accepts this connection and further speculates that the formation may ultimately belong to Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-, if an intermediate sense ‘beam (ray; post)’ is assumed. Pentangelo (2021: 247–252) proposes phonesthetic blending of a Germanic b- body-related phonestheme with *stainaz, but this lacks independent comparative support.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | bainą | bainō |
| Acc. | bainą | bainō |
| Gen. | bainas, bainis | bainǫ̂ |
| Dat. | bainai | bainamaz |
| Inst. | bainō | bainamiz |
| Voc. | bainą | bainō |
Descendants
-
*bain (Proto-West Germanic)
-
bēn (Old Dutch)
-
bêen (Middle Dutch)
- bein (Limburgish)
-
bêen (Middle Dutch)
-
bēn (Old Dutch)
-
*bain (Proto-West Germanic)
-
bēn (Old Dutch)
-
bêen (Middle Dutch)
-
been (Dutch)
- been (Afrikaans)
-
been (Dutch)
-
bêen (Middle Dutch)
-
bēn (Old Dutch)
-
*bain (Proto-West Germanic)
-
bān (Old English)
-
bon, ban, bane, bone, boon (Middle English)
- bone (English)
- byen (Geordie)
- bane, bain, bean, been (Scots)
-
bon, ban, bane, bone, boon (Middle English)
-
bān (Old English)
-
*bain (Proto-West Germanic)
-
bēn (Old Frisian)
- Been (Saterland Frisian)
- bien (West Frisian)
-
bēn (Old Frisian)
-
*bain (Proto-West Germanic)
-
bein (Old High German)
-
bein (Middle High German)
- Boan (Bavarian)
- Bein (German)
- ביין (beyn) (Yiddish)
-
bein (Middle High German)
-
bein (Old High German)
-
*bain (Proto-West Germanic)
-
bein (Old High German)
-
bein (Middle High German)
-
Been (Central Franconian)
- Been (Luxembourgish)
-
Been (Central Franconian)
-
bein (Middle High German)
-
bein (Old High German)
-
*bain (Proto-West Germanic)
-
bēn (Old Saxon)
-
bên (Middle Low German)
- Been, Bein (Low German)
- Been (Plautdietsch)
-
bên (Middle Low German)
-
bēn (Old Saxon)
-
bein (Old Norse)
- bein (Faroese)
- bein (Icelandic)
-
bein (Old Norse)
-
bein (Norwegian Nynorsk)
- bein (Norwegian Bokmål)
-
bein (Norwegian Nynorsk)
-
bein (Old Norse)
-
ben (Old Danish)
-
ben (Danish)
- ben (Norwegian Bokmål)
-
ben (Danish)
-
ben (Old Danish)
-
bein (Old Norse)
-
bēn (Old Swedish)
- ben (Swedish)
-
bēn (Old Swedish)