-sciepe

Old English

The spelling of this entry has been normalized according to the principles established by Wiktionary's editor community or recent spelling standards of the language.

Alternative forms

• -sċipe, -sċip, -sċype

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *-skapi, from Proto-Germanic *-skapiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃi͜y.pe/

Suffix

-sċiepe m

1. noun-forming suffix: -ship
   • c. 1000, The Letter of Alexander the Great to Aristotle‎^[1]:

     Ða toforan monan upgonge þa cwomon þær Scorpiones þæt wyrmcyn swa hie ær gewunelice wæron toweard þæs wætersciepes.

     Then before moonrise those vermin called scorpions came, as they were accustomed, toward the water source.

Usage notes

• Though an expected outcome of Proto-Germanic *-skapiz in the Early West Saxon dialect, the form -sċiepe itself is a hapax legomenon, attested only once within the corpus (seen in the quotation above). The form -sċipe is what is primarily found instead, reflecting low stress monophthongization and raising in all dialects prior to the written period. Compare also hīew and nīewe for similar changes.

Declension

Strong i-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	-sċiepe	-sċiepas
accusative	-sċiepe	-sċiepas
genitive	-sċiepes	-sċiepa
dative	-sċiepe	-sċiepum

Derived terms

Old English terms suffixed with -sciepe

broþorsciepe

cafsciepe

eorlsciepe

forþscype

gesiþscipe

gleawscipe

hlafordsciepe

leodsciepe

snelscipe

weorþsciepe

Descendants

• Middle English: -schipe
  • English: -ship
  • Middle Scots: -schip
    • Scots: -ship