v.
Pe pp. keued
'to sink (down)'
(Modern English )Found only in Pe, ME keue is usually derived from ON kefja or kvefja 'to dip, put under water' < PGmc *kwabjan- 'to press down', and a meaning 'to dip, sink down' is posited (cp. OHG ir-queban 'to suffocate'). OED is dissatisfied with this derivation and considers the origin and meaning of the word obscure, describing this interpretation as 'scarcely satisfactory' for Pe 981 (though Goll 981n answers this objection). Bj. shares these doubts and regards the etymology as uncertain, though points out that a PGmc base *kwafjan- or *kwaƀjan- could not have given a native ME keven. Ammon (personal communication) alternatively suggests the source might be OE *cǣf(i)an (only attested as a pp. and with prefixes) 'to adorn, ornament' or related to OE cāf 'lively, quick', and thus indicate simply 'movement'. This would also provide the long vowel required by the rhyme (see Goll 1201n, arguing for Norse derivation on the basis that 'words of Scandinavian origin showing a short e in their root followed by a single consonant with -ja suffix, have their radical lengthened').
PGmc Ancestor
*kwaƀjan-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
kefja 'to dip, put under water'
(ONP kefja (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Icel kefja
OE Cognate
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
DD1c
Only these two occurrences in Pe.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Pe 320, 981