Item 6 - Postcard from W. W. Skeat to W. Aldis Wright

(Cambridge.)—Discusses the origin of the word ‘seldom’.

(Undated. Postmarked at Cambridge on 21 Feb. 1879.)

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Transcript

I do not now feel so sure that seldum is an older form than seldon. It would certainly be so as a rule, but it seems probable that in this particular case the form seldum was due to the notion that it ought to be an old dative.

The real trouble is this; that the sb. or adj. from which seldom must have been derived nowhere appears. The oldest trace is in Goth. silda-leiks = A.S. sel(d)líc = wonderful. Everywhere else it is an adverb—viz. A.S. seldan, seldon, seldum; Grein, ii. 426. But seld-ost = most seldom, occurs in Boethius, xxxix.3, as quoted by Grein. Icel. sjaldan. The word sjald-sénn = seld-seen {1}, quoted in Icel. Dict. p. 533, is, surely, much to the point.

W. W. S.

[Direction:] W: Aldis Wright Esq. | Trinity College | Cambridge.

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Postmarked at Cambridge on 21 February 1879.

{1} Underlined in pencil. In the margin is written in pencil: ‘Cf. sel(d)couth = seld-known.’