¹ Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar 2³.184 (Heidelberg, 1927).

² K. Brugmann, Gdr. 2².1.468–9; 2².3.76–9, 237–8.

³ W. Wilmanns, Deutsche Grammatik 2.106–9 (Strassburg, 1896).

⁴ C. Schuldt, Die Bildung der schwachen Verba im Altenglischen 64–6 (Kiel, 1905).

⁵ B. Brilioth, Intensiva och iterativa verb, bildade genom affix i Engelskan, Nordisk Tidskrift för Filologie (3d series) 20.117–20 (1911).

⁶ See for example J. Wright, Old English Grammar 332–3 (Oxford, 1925); M. Turk, Anglo-Saxon Reader 48 (New York, 1930).

⁷ For the sake of consistency, the verbs are spelled here as they appear in Clark Hall, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Cambridge, 1931), although the forms actually found in the citations frequently vary from the lexicographical norm. Observe also that the spellings given for droppetan, gyrretan, hrǣcetan, and stammetan reflect the Late Old English simplification of double consonants, common in the 10th- and particularly the 11th-century forms of all the verbs. The verbs manetian and wīnrēafetian appear to have adopted the infinitive ending of the second weak conjugation. In this connection see Schuldt 66 fn. The etymology of gealchattan is uncertain, but it was included in the group for the sake of completeness.

⁸ In general, the derivations given in F. Holthausen, Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Heidelberg, 1934), are accepted here. Occasionally a derivation suggested by Schuldt or Brilioth has seemed more reasonable than a corresponding one from Holthausen, and in such instance it has been adopted without comment.

⁹ āgnettan, borettan, droppetan, efnettan, emnettan, fagettan, flogettan, grymettan, hāmettan, lāÐettan, lēasettan, rāsettan, sārettan, scottettan.

¹⁰ Other instances of particularly revealing translations into Latin are borettiÐ: vibrat; brodetende: palpitans; clæppette sprangette: palpitaret; droppetodon: distillaverunt; falletande: concidens; ic gremette: fremo; ic halette: resalutato; sporette: recalcitravit; þamitaþ: plaudent; þodetton: pulsent.

¹¹ Quoted by A. E. H. Swaen, Contributions to Anglo-Saxon Lexicography, Englische Studien 49.354 (1915). Other instances of the same thing are to be found for fagettan: se mona faggeteÐ oÐ Ðe asweartaþ, Lchdms. III.240.23; for flogettan: se ongann flogettan 7 fiþercian ymb his ansyne, Gr. D. 100.19; for hālettan: sum man hine halette 7 grette 7 hine be his naman nemde, Bede 4.24, 2.12; and for scofettan: Ðisse woruld þinga Ðas monnes mod gedrefÐ 7 hine scofett hidres Ðædres oþ þæt he afielp of his willan, Cura Past. 169.13.

¹² When differences do occur, they are too diverse in nature to permit any generalization. For example, compare bōtian ‘to get better’ and bōtettan ‘to improve, repair’; līcian ‘to please’ and līcettan ‘to feign’.

¹³ Translates resalutato in Gregory's Dialogues. Other citations support the idea of effusive and repeated greetings.

¹⁴ Se hrefn mid openum muÐe ongann crakettan, Gregory, Dialogues 118.25. þa þe her swiÐost galpettaÐ 7 on unrihttidum on oferfyllo bioÐ forgriwene, quoted by Napier, Contributions to Old English Lexicography, Trans. Phil. Soc. 1906, p. 27. Ær Ðan se hana hafitigende crawe, Homl. Thorpe 2.246.4.

¹⁵ Other examples are: Geseah he swymman sealfran on flode ond gelome doppettan adune to grunde. ða begann se ealda siccetan and mid wope wearÐ ofergoten. ða ongann se Catulus him spigettan on. ða ongann he sworettan swa swa eallunga gewæced on þæm creÐe belocen. See also the citations for crācettan and gealpettan in fn. 14.

¹⁶ It is curious that many of the -ettan verbs cited as intensive in some of the grammars turn out upon examination to belong to one of the other categories. For example, geandettan, hālettan, līcettan, and stemnettan are so listed in Turk's Anglo-Saxon Reader. Of these, the first does not have an -ettan suffix, the second is quite clearly frequentative, the third is causative; only the last has any claims to the intensive classification. Of the thirteen verbs listed by Wright as intensives, hoppettan, scofettan, stammetan, and sworrettan have been classified here as frequentative, sārettan, grymettan, and scrallettan as unsustained durative; hlēapettan and sicettan are among the ten so-called dubious frequentatives, līcettan is causative, lēasettan is diminutive, and lyfettan is pejorative. This leaves only spornettan ‘to kick’, which I have hesitated to classify because the citations are not sufficiently indicative.

¹⁷ J. Offe, Das Aussterben alter Verba und ihr Ersatz im Verlaufe der englischen Sprachgeschichte 48 (Kiel, 1908).

¹⁸ S. Moore, Historical Outlines of English Phonology and Morphology² 32 (Ann Arbor, 1925).

¹⁹ Final [θ] often appears as t in EME. Note, for example, such forms as cumet, bitacnet, nabbet, makiet, haldet, from the Lambeth Homilies; habbet, wexit, stondet, etc., from Layamon; bigredet, biledet, segget from the Owl and Nightingale.

²⁰ Moore 33.