Etymology

Reflexes of PGmc *renkaz ‘man, warrior’ are widely attested in WGmc, viz. OE rinc, OS rink, OHG rinch (also Burg. *rinks), but cognates are known in Scandinavia only through OIcel rekkr (frequent esp. in verse), Icel and Far rekkur and in the Swedish place-name Rinkabý. Given the OIcel vocalism, ME forms in <e> are often explained by suggesting at least some input from ON (thus Knigge 76, Kullnick 9, TGD (followed by Nagano 1966: 58), GDS, McGee 343, MED), but there are other instances of lowering of /i/ > /e/ in the Gaw MS (see GDS §17, TGD p. 135), and it is possible that ME renk is simply a native development (thus OED and Maetzner 303n).

PGmc Ancestor

*renkaz

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

rekkr 'man, warrior'
(ONP rekkr (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far rekkur, Icel rekkur, OSw Rinkabȳ

OE Cognate

rinc 'man, warrior'

Phonological and morphological markers

[ON lowering of */i/ > /e/ before assimilated nasal] (possibly diagnostic)

Summary category

CC2

Attestation

MED cites a number of spellings in <e>, which is a relatively frequent variant esp. in alliterative contexts (inc. PP, the Winchester Malory etc.). The Gaw MS generally has <e> forms, but also Cl 592 <ring>, Pa 216 <rynk>.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 303, 432, 691, etc.; Cl 7, 96, 105 etc.; WA 21, 177, 330 etc.

Gaw 2206 renk is usually interpreted as an instance of this n. (thus e.g. TGDn), but alternatives have been proposed (TG (p. 117) and AW suggest renk ‘field of combat’ < OFr renk; Vant n. reads the form as a v. meaning ‘may ring’; PS (see 2206–7n) emend the line, and take renk as an error for *reken ‘worthily’.

Bibliography

MED rink (n.) , OED3 rink (n.1) , HTOED , Dance renk, de Vries rekkr, Mag. rekkur, Orel *renkaz, AEW rinc