Etymology
This ptcp. adj. is attested uniquely from
WA. The context (5429-31) is the description of a 'coue' which is 'ouirecouerd', 'claggid with spices/ þat makis þire wormes so wele & woud in þaire kyndis/ þat ilka twelmonth a turne þai tournay togedire'. Glosses, e.g. 'crammed' (TPD), 'clogged, sticky' (Skeat WA) and '?Besmeared, bedaubed, covered' (MED) reflect an effort to make sense from the context, assuming an etymology connecting the word with MnE dial
clagg (v.) 'to stick, adhere to' (cp. also the adj.
claggy 'sticky, adhesive, glutinous; (of soil) muddy, miry, clogged with moisture' (
EDD s.v.)). The best comparandum put forward for the MnE dial words is Dan
klæg 'mud' < PGmc
*klaij- (cp. OE
clǣg, MLG
klei, OFris
klāy; cp. OIcel
kleggi 'horsefly' (as Bj. 215 notes)). This would explain the form of the ME and, although some sense extension is required for the instance in
WA, it is plausible. In this case, the absence of palatalization of /g/ is a possible, but not certain, indication of loan.
The connection is supported by a further instance of a pp. with prefix
bi- in a sense more obviously relating to the Dan by
MED from c1440(a1400)
Awntyrs Arth. (Thrn) ('alle by-claggede in claye'), and
OED's
beclog (v.) is probably better identified with this v. than
clog (v.), although in practice differentiating the two is often impossible and some conflation of them is evident in MnE.
PGmc Ancestor
?*klaij-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
cp. kleggi 'horsefly'
(ONP kleggi (sb.)(2))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
ODan klæg, Dan klæg
OE Cognate
clǣg 'clay'
Phonological and morphological markers
[absence of palatalization of */ɡ/]
(possibly diagnostic)
Summary category
CC2c