Etymology

The adj. form related to syluer (n.); see discussion at that entry.

PGmc Ancestor

*siluƀra-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

silfr (n.) 'silver'
(ONP silfr (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far silvur, Icel silfur, Norw sylv, ODan sølfver, Dan sølv, Sw silver

OE Cognate

seol(o)fren, seolfern (etc.) 'made of silver'; cp. seol(o)for, siol(o)for (n.) 'silver'

Phonological and morphological markers

[absence of back-mutation of */i/] (possibly diagnostic) (may not be applicable)

Summary category

CC2

Attestation

Spellings in <i> (or later in <y>) are common and widespread in ME (and already to be found in the Peterborough interpolations to ASC.E s.a. 656 and in a1225(OE) Vsp.A.Hom.Init.Creat.(Vsp A.22)).  See further LALME dot maps 1065–7 (S half of England only), where <e> variants (and related forms in <u, eo> etc.) are more or less confined to the SWM. On the place-name evidence see EPNE.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 124, 886; Cl 1406; WA 1565

At Gaw 124 the MS apparently reads <syluener> (i.e. the result of a misplaced mark of abbreviation), but this has been corrected to *sylueren since Morris (footnote) and M(G).

Bibliography

MED silver (adj.) ; silveren (adj.) , OED silver (n. and adj.) ; silvern (adj.) , HTOED , Dance syluerin, Bj. 112-13, 308, de Vries silfr, Mag. silfur, Bj-L. sølv, Orel *siluƀran; *siluƀrīnaz, Kroonen *silubra-, AEW siolufr, siolfor; sielfren, siolfren, EPNE seolfor