muckel

adj., adv., n.

Cl mukel; Pat mukel; WA mekill, mekil, mykle

'large, great; size' (Modern English mickle)

Etymology

Absence of palatalization of non-initial /k/ may indicate ON influence, but as a test of loan is ultimately inconclusive. Cp. OE micel, mycel ‘great, large’ (attested as a n. mycelu) with OIcel mikill, mykill (the neut. sg. form of which could be used as a n. meaning ‘much, greatness’ etc.), and further Go mikils, OS mikil, OHG mihhil, mihhal, mihhel. ON input is favoured by MED, OED3 (noting in particular the dial distribution), GDS and (cautiously) Bj., and McLaughlin (113) holds that the /k/-variant may have been reinforced by contact with the ON word.

PGmc Ancestor

*mekila

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

mikill, mykill 'great, large'; cp. miklu, mikit (etc.) (n.) 'much'
(ONP mikill (adj.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far mikil, mekil, Icel mikill, ODan megel, møgel, OSw mykil

OE Cognate

micel, mycel (adj.) ‘great, large’; cp. mycelu (n.) 'largeness, size'

Phonological and morphological markers

[absence of palatalization of */k/] (possibly diagnostic)

Summary category

CC2c

Attestation

Spellings indicating medial /k/ are typically N and E, but are also sometimes met with elsewhere; the earliest unambiguous instances are in Orrm.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 142, Cl 52, 366, 514 etc.; Pat 268, 324; Erk 27, 286; WA 69, 130, 215 etc.

At WA 4310 MS A has mekills, emended by TPD on the basis of MS D. Two instances in WA (130, 5468) occur as the first element of a compound pron. mekil(l) quat ' many things', often printed as one word.

Bibliography

MED muchel (adj.) , muchel (n.) , OED3 mickle (adj., pron. (and n.) and adv.) , HTOED , HTOED , Dance muckel, Bj. 146, de Vries mikill, Mag. mikill, Heid. mekila-, Orel *mekilaz, Kroonen *mekila-, AEW micel, mycel, EPNE micel, mycel