v. (pp.)
‘burnished, made clean by rolling under pressure’
(Modern English rock)This word has been explained as a loan from ON or, more probably, a native development, depending on how the relationships between the various words attested in Scandinvian and English are interpreted: (1) The closest analogues are Dan rokke (Norw rokke), Sw dial rocka, rucka 'to move to and fro, sway'. The usual view (contra Kullnick 16, who appears to treat the Sw v. as the source of a loan into English), is that the Scandinavian v. is cognate with, rather than the source of, 12c. OE roccian, ME rokken. Both suppose a wk. 2 formation on PGmc *ruk(k)- (itself of debatable etymology: see further Orel s.v. *rukkjanan, Kluge-Seebold s.v. Ruck, Kroonen) which can be equated with the root of ME richen ‘to arrange, mend, pull’ (MED s.v. richen v.1, OED s.v. rich v.2) < an unrecorded OE wk. 1 v. *ryccan < a *rukjan- (cp. OIcel rykkja, MDu rucken ‘to pull’, OHG rucchen (Ger rücken), MLG rücken, rucken ‘to move, leave’, etc.). (2) TG (followed by McGee 343) derives ME rokked from the middle voice (hrukkask 'to be wrinkled') of ON hrukka (<*hrunka) 'wrinkled' ( the etymon of ME ronkled). However, this would require the same Norse word to be borrowed into English in variants with and without assimilation of -nk-, and does not fit nearly as well semantically.
PGmc Ancestor
(1)*ruk(k)-; (2) *xrunkwōn
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
(2) hrukka ‘wrinkle’
(ONP (2) hrukka (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
(1) ?Icel rokka, Norw rokke, Dan rokke, Sw dial rocka, rucka (2) Far rukka, Icel hrukka, Norw rukke, Dan rynke, OSw runkia, Sw rynka
OE Cognate
(1) roccian 'to rock (a child)'
Phonological and morphological markers
[ON consonant cluster assimilation] (may not be applicable)
Summary category
DD1
First recorded in late OE in the 12c. LS 22 (InFestisSMarie) (= MED’s a1150(c1125) Vsp.D.Hom.Fest.Virg.(Vsp D.14)), and thereafter widespread in ME.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 2018
On the sense at Gaw 2018, see Onions 1924: 286, TGDn, PSn, and further Wright 1906: 218.