britten

v.

Gaw pres. 3 sg. britnez,  past britned, pp. britned, brittened; WA infin breten, pres. 3 sg. brettens, brettenes, bretens, past pl. bretned, brityned, pp. bretened, bretind, brettend, bryttynyd, bryttynett, brytnyd

‘to break up, destroy; cut (up)’ (Modern English britten)

Etymology

Formally, ME britten can be derived from OE (ge)brytnian ‘to distribute, give’, a verbal derivative on the str. II v. brēotan ‘to kill; destroy’ (more frequent in the prefixed form ābrēotan), cp. also (ge)bryttian ‘to distribute, bestow; to enjoy, enjoy the use of; be of use to, benefit; exercise (authority)’.  There have been attempts to adduce (relatively oblique) ON input on the grounds that the (metaphorically extended) sense recorded for OE brytnian is not an especially good match for the more literal meanings of the ME v. Both the ON v. represented by OIcel brjóta ‘to break, damage, wreck (etc.)' (Olszewska 1974a: 208, Sandahl 1964: 266 n. 7), and the derivative brytja ‘to chop into pieces, quarter; cut into portions and serve’  (MED, OED) have been suggested as possible sources and input from both or either, while not strictly necessary to explain the ME, is plausible given its distribution.

PGmc Ancestor

*ƀrut-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

brjóta ‘to break, damage, wreck (etc.)', brytja ‘to chop into pieces, quarter; cut into portions and serve’
(ONP brjóta (vb.); brytja (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far bróta, Icel brjóta, Norw brjota, Dan bryde, Sw bryta; Far brytja, Icel brytja, Norw brytja

OE Cognate

(ge)brytnian ‘to distribute, give’; cp. brȳtan ‘to crush, grind; break into pieces; destroy’

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CC3c

Attestation

Fairly frequent in MED (from Orrm), esp. in the later period; a N and E word, esp. frequent in alliterative verse (inc. WPal.). Recorded in N dial of MnE (see EDD and OED).

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 2, 680, 1339 etc.; WA 1307, 1328, 2479 etc.

The A MS of WA has the (closely related) variant reading bretted at 2256 and 2697; see further bretted (v.).

Bibliography

MED britnen (v.) , OED britten (v.) , HTOED , EDD britten (v.1), Dance britten, Bj. 15, de Vries brjóta; bryti, Mag. brjóta; brytja, Seebold breut-a- (1), Orel *ƀreutanan; *ƀrutjōjanan, Kroonen *breutan-, AEW brēotan; brytnian; brytt(i)an, DOE brēotan; brytnian; gebrytnian; bryttian; gebryttian (gebrytod)