Unidad documental simple 11 - Postcard from W. W. Skeat to W. Aldis Wright

(Cambridge.)—Discusses the relation of ‘sceaðen’, which seems to be a hapax legomenon, to words in Middle English and Icelandic.
(Undated. Postmarked at Cambridge on 30 Mar. 1885.)

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Transcript

Sceaðen seems to be a hapax legomenon. As a fact, the A.S. sceaða [masc. = one who harms] took the secondary sense of “harm” when it passed into the M.E. skathe, because it became identical with M.E. skathe [= Icel. skaþi, masc. = harm, damage]. See Stratmann, p. 437: Layamon, 25691.—Strictly, Icel. skaþi = A.S. sceðð, by umlaut of a to e. Bosworth gives sceðð, but no reference.

W. W. Skeat.

[Direction:] W. Aldis Wright Esqre | Trinity College | Cambridge [At the foot:] Local.

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Postmarked at Cambridge on 30 March 1885.