drighte

Middle English

Alternative forms

driȝt, Driȝt, driȝte, driȝth, driht, drikte, dryȝte, dryȝtte, drythe; drigten, drithe, dryghten (East Anglia); driȝten (Southern)
drichtin, drihten, drist, driste, dristin, drittin (Early Middle English); drihtin (AB language); Drihhtin (Ormulum)
driȝtin (County Durham); Drichtine, Drightin, Drychtin (Early Scots);^[1] drightin, driht, drihtiin, drithin, dryghtyne, þrightin (Yorkshire)
driȝtine, Driȝtine, dryghtyn, Dryȝtyn (Northwest Midland); drihte, dryȝtne, dryhtin (especially West Midland)

Etymology

Inherited from Old English dryhten,^[2] from Proto-West Germanic *druhtin, from Proto-Germanic *druhtinaz.

Perhaps due to standardised "church usage", this word consistently has /i/ even in dialects where Old English /y/ is retained or becomes /ɛ/; already in Old English, the form drihten is very common. The loss of /n/ is parallel to that in e.g. mayde, while forms with /iː/ in the second syllable have been attributed to association with almyghten, almyghtyn (/alˈmixtən/, /alˈmixtiːn/, ← Old English ælmihtiġan, ælmihtiġne, ælmihtiġum)). But while almyghten may have exerted some influence, it cannot be the only cause of second-syllable /iː/ in this word as forms such as drightin are found in dialects which have reflexes of ælmæhtiġ (e.g. Orm's allmahhtiȝ but Drihhtin), while it fails to explain forms of Cristen such as cristin (/krisˈtiːn/); therefore, the influence of Old French -in and its etymon Latin -īnus is probable.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈdrixt(ə)/ (later non-Northern)
IPA^(key): /drixˈtiːn/, /ˈdrixtiːn/^[8] (especially Northern or North Midland)
IPA^(key): /ˈdrixtən/ (especially Early Middle English, Northern, or North Midland)

Proper noun

drighte (poetic)

(Christianity) The Lord (God the Father or Jesus Christ)
- c. 1378-9, [William Langland], “Paſſus xııȷ᷒ ⁊c”, in [Piers Plowman, A Treatise on Sin] (W, B-text), London, published c. 1400, →OCLC, folio 77, recto; republished as Thorlac Turville-Petre, Hoyt N. Duggan, editors, Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.15.17 (The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive; 2), SEENET, 2014, →ISBN:
  […] And werkmen were agaſt alıte. þıs wole be þouȝt longe / In þe date of oure drıȝte. ın a drye Aprılle / A thousand and þre hundred. twıes twenty and ten […]
  […] and [even] workers were slightly sad; this will be remembered for some time: / a dry April during the year of our Lord / a thousand, three hundred, twice twenty, and ten [1370] […]
(rare) An pagan god (only in petitions)

References

^ “Drichtine, Drych-, Drightin, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
^ “Drihten, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ d'Ardenne, S[imonne] R. T. O. (1961) [1936], “Etymological Appendix”, in Þe Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Iuliene (Early English Text Society; 248), London: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, →OCLC, pages 148-149.
^ Jordan, Richard (1974), Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)‎^[1], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 136, page 140.
^ Luick, Karl (1914-1921), Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache‎^[2], Erster Band, I. Abteilung, Leipzig: Chr. Herm. Tauchnitz, published 1921, →OCLC, § 440, page 492.
^ Sisam, Celia (1983), “Early Middle English Drihtin”, in Douglas Gray, E. G. Stanley, editors, Middle English Studies Presented to Norman Davis in Honour of his Seventieth Birthday, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 246-254; reprinted 1985.
^ Zettersten, Arne (1965), “drihtines (gen.sg.)”, in Studies in the dialect and vocabulary of the Ancrene Riwle (Lund Studies in English; 34)‎^[3], Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, →OCLC, page 114.
^ Strandberg, Otto (1919), “Drightin”, in The rime-vowels of Cursor mundi; a phonological and etymological investigation‎^[4], Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri-A.-B., →OCLC, § 328, page 164.

[1] “Drichtine, Drych-, Drightin, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.

[2] “Drihten, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[3] 'Ardenne, S[imonne] R. T. O. (1961) [1936], “Etymological Appendix”, in Þe Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Iuliene (Early English Text Society; 248), London: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, →OCLC, pages 148-149.

[4] Jordan, Richard (1974), Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)‎^[1], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 136, page 140.

[5] Luick, Karl (1914-1921), Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache‎^[2], Erster Band, I. Abteilung, Leipzig: Chr. Herm. Tauchnitz, published 1921, →OCLC, § 440, page 492.

[6] Sisam, Celia (1983), “Early Middle English Drihtin”, in Douglas Gray, E. G. Stanley, editors, Middle English Studies Presented to Norman Davis in Honour of his Seventieth Birthday, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 246-254; reprinted 1985.

[7] Zettersten, Arne (1965), “drihtines (gen.sg.)”, in Studies in the dialect and vocabulary of the Ancrene Riwle (Lund Studies in English; 34)‎^[3], Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, →OCLC, page 114.

[8] Strandberg, Otto (1919), “Drightin”, in The rime-vowels of Cursor mundi; a phonological and etymological investigation‎^[4], Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri-A.-B., →OCLC, § 328, page 164.

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