adj., n.
'two, double'
(Modern English twin)The OE n. (ge)twinn occurs several times in the specific sense ‘a twin’, including in texts showing no plausible Norse lexical influence and is thus usually treated as native (so Bj., AEW). The OE adj. twinn ‘twin, twofold, double’ is rarer, appearing only in 11c. glosses (see further SPS); this word and the ME adj. could represent a transferred usage of the indigenous n. (so SPS, GDS, see also Dance 2003: 407 n.152). But several authorities allow for at least some input from ON, cp. OIcel tvennr, tvinnr ‘twofold, double’, sometimes in order to account in particular for the word’s relatively frequent use as a num. in N and E ME (thus Bj., OED, Knigge, and more tentatively MED, TGD and McGee 353 ). The ON adj. tvennr, tvinnr seems to reflect an earlier *twizn-, i.e. an n-extension of PGmc *twis-, which may also be the source of the OE n. (see Hogg §4.16 for other instances of */zn/ > /nn/ in OE), but the usual development of *twizn- into OE appears to have been to twīn, as in the n. twīn ‘double thread, twist, twine, linen-thread, linen’ (cp. Du twijn), and hence OE (ge)twinn is more plausibly explained as a formation on a PGmc *twi-n-, as in OHG zwinal, zwenel, zwiniling ‘twin’. See also twynnen.
PGmc Ancestor
*twizn- or *twi-n-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
tvennr, tvinnr ‘twofold, double’
(ONP tvennr (adj.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far tvinnur, Icel tvennur, Norw tvinn, tvenne, ODan tvinnæ, tvænnæ, Dan tvende, OSw tvænne, tvinn-, Sw tvenne, tvänne
OE Cognate
(ge)twinn (n.) 'a twin'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC1c
On the OE occurrences of the adj. see SPS. Mainly recorded in ME from N and E texts, esp. when used as a num., though there are indications of wider dissemination in MED’s sense (2), i.e. when used as a n. as in Gaw (inc. Mirk and Trevisa).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 425, 1339; Pe 251, 1012; Cl 966, 1047
Both instances in Gaw (at 425, 1339) and Cl (at 966, 1047) and the instance at Pe 251 are in the adverbial phrase in twynne ‘in two’. The second instance in Pe is the compound twynne-hew (MS <twynne-how>) 'of two colours' (see EVG 1012n).