Etymology
cp. OIcel
bolgna ‘to swell, bulge’, an inchoative formation (in -n-) on the PGmc str. III v.
*belgan-, as in OE
belgan ‘to swell with anger’, specifically the zero-grade as in the pp. (as in OE
gebolgen); and cp. OS -
belgan, OHG
belgan and OIcel
bolginn pp. ‘swollen, inflamed’ (the only part of the str. v. extant in ON), OFris
ovir-bulgen,
for-bolgen (pp.) ‘enraged’. ME
bolnen is always derived from Norse due to the lack of comparable formations on
bolg- in WGmc and the general tendency to regard wk. verbs in
-n- as typical of ON. However, early ME
bolheð ‘puffs up, inflates’ is normally explained as a native derivation on the pp. stem of the same Gmc v., i.e. OE
*bolgian (thus Zettersten 1969: 117) and in that case ME
bolnen could be interpreted as a native elaboration of this with the addition of the
-n- infix (perhaps influenced by Norse derivational morphology)(unless ME
bolheð is a reworking of earlier
*bolgnen < ON
bolgna with loss of
-n- according to the model of standard English wk. verbs). Either way, the medial consonant cluster of ME
bolnen must be explained as showing simplification of /lɡn/ > /ln/, perhaps already in a VAN etymon (cp. Dan
bolne, Sw
bulna, Norw
bolna), though sporadic cluster simplification is widespread (for OE see e.g. Campbell §477).
PGmc Ancestor
*belgan-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
bolgna ‘to swell, bulge’
(ONP bolgna (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Icel bólginn, Norw bolgen, Dan bullen, OSw bulghin, bulin
OE Cognate
belgan ‘to swell with anger’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC1c