v. (pp., pres. pl.)
(1) (pp.) ‘twined, plaited’ (or pres. pl. 'twine, plait'); (2) (pres. pl.) ‘match’
(Modern English twine)Two identifications have been offered for the verbal form twynnen (which has been interpreted as pres. pl. or a pp.) at Gaw 191 (‘Þe tayl and his toppyng twynnen of a sute’), either of which admits the possibility of Norse derivation or input: (1) (a) This verbal form has usually been understood (since Madden and Morris) as a variant of ME twinen 'to twine', a derivative of OE twīn ‘double thread, twist, twine, linen-thread, linen’ (< PGmc *twizn-; cp. MLG twern, MHG zwirn, and the verbs MLG twernen, OHG zwirnēn) (and see further twynne (adj.)). McGillivray (191n) parses the verb here as a pres. pl. (b) Menner (1926: 400, followed by McGee 353) instead derives the ME from ON, cp. the OIcel verb tvinna ‘to twine, twist thread’ and the OIcel n. tvinni ‘twine, twisted thread', regarding the <nn> spelling as diagnostic (OE */r/ arising from rhotacism is lost here between a vowel and consonant, but retained in all the Gmc cognates of twīn). (2) GDS (and PS 191n) instead gloss twynnen 'to match' and connect it twynne (adj.) as a derivation from OE twinn (though for the possibility of ON input on this word, see that entry).
PGmc Ancestor
*twizn-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
(1) tvinni ‘twine, twisted thread’; (2) tvennr (tvinnr) cp. 'two-fold, twin, in pairs'
(ONP (1) tvinni (sb.); tvinna (vb.); (2) tvennr (adj.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
(1) Icel tvinni, Dan tvinde, Sw tvinna; (2) Far tvinnur, Icel tvennur, Norw tvinn, tvenne, ODan tvinnæ, tvænnæ, Dan tvende, OSw tvænne, tvinn-, Sw tvenne
OE Cognate
(1) twīn (n.) ‘double thread, twist, twine, linen-thread, linen’; (2) twinn (adj.) 'twin, two-fold, double, two by two'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
D2
(1) ME twinen ‘to twine’ is fairly widespread from LB.Cal onwards. Variants in <nn> are infrequent, but MED records them also in the manuscript variants for citations from PP and a1500 Tundale (Adv 19.3.1). There are no attested instances of the ppl. adj. conjugated st. with the root vowel in the zero grade other than that in Gaw (though cp. a pp. <twone> in 1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge (OED)). (2) The only other possible instance of a ME twinnen in this sense is given by MED (s.v. twinnen v.2) from c1600(?c1395) PPl.Creed (Trin-C R.3.15), but this is isolated and doubtful. (On the adj. see twynne.)
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 191