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

Zone d'identification

Cote

Add. MS b/74/14/6

Titre

Postcard from W. W. Skeat to W. Aldis Wright

Date(s)

  • 21 Feb. 1879 (Production)

Niveau de description

Pièce

Étendue matérielle et support

1 postcard

Zone du contexte

Histoire archivistique

Source immédiate d'acquisition ou de transfert

Zone du contenu et de la structure

Portée et contenu

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

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

—————

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.

—————

Postmarked at Cambridge on 21 February 1879.

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

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Zone des conditions d'accès et d'utilisation

Conditions d’accès

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

    Script of material

      Language and script notes

      Caractéristiques matérielle et contraintes techniques

      Finding aids

      Zone des sources complémentaires

      Existence and location of originals

      Existence and location of copies

      Related units of description

      Descriptions associées

      Zone des notes

      Identifiant(s) alternatif(s)

      Mots-clés

      Mots-clés - Sujets

      Mots-clés - Lieux

      Mots-clés - Genre

      Identifiant de la description

      Identifiant du service d'archives

      Rules and/or conventions used

      Statut

      Niveau de détail

      Dates of creation revision deletion

      This description was created by A. C. Green in 2022.

      Langue(s)

        Écriture(s)

          Sources

          Accession area