Hwætの英語

発音

• IPA: /xwæt/, [ʍæt]
• 韻: -æt

語源 1

From Proto-West Germanic *hwat. Cognates include Old Frisian hwet, Old Saxon hwat, Old Dutch wat, Old High German waz, Old Norse hvat. The Indo-European root also led to Latin quod, Lithuanian kàd (“that”), and Irish cad.

代名詞

hwæt

1. what
   • (Can we date this quote?), The Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn‎:

     Hwæt sind þā þrēo þing þe nān mann būtan libban ne mæġ?

     What are the three things no one can live without?

   • c. 995, Ælfric of Eynsham, Extracts on Grammar in English‎:

     Dǣdlīcu word ġeswitoliaþ hwæt menn dōþ.

     Active verbs express what people do.

   • c. 992, Ælfric of Eynsham, Midlent Sunday‎:

     Mid hwon magon wē byċġan hlāf þissum folce?

     What can we use to buy bread for these people?

   • c. 996, Ælfric of Eynsham, Lives of Saints‎:

     Hwæs ābītst þū?

     What are you waiting for?

   • (Can we date this quote?), The Legend of St. Andrew‎:

     Ealle menn flēoþ of þǣre ċeastre. Tō hwon willaþ ġē þæder faran?

     Everyone’s fleeing that city. What do you want to go there for?

2. why
   • late 9th century, Boethius, translated by Alfred the Great, The Consolation of Philosophy‎:

     Hwæt seofast þū wiþ mē?

     Why are you groaning at me?

   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 4:27, page https://archive.org/stream/dahalgangodspelo00thor#page/n197/mode/2up:

     His leornungcneohtas wundrodon þæt hē wiþ wīf spræc, þēah heora nān ne cwæþ “Hwæt sēcst þū?” oþþe “Hwæt spricst þū wiþ hīe?”

     His disciples were amazed that he was talking to a woman, though none of them said “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking to her?”

3. what kind [with genitive]
   • c. 996, Ælfric of Eynsham, Lives of Saints‎:

     Þā behēoldon swīðe ġeorne þā ċeapmenn hine, and be him on ġeþance smēadon hwæt manna hē bēon sċolde.

     The businessmen looked at him very closely and tried to figure out what kind of person he might be.

4. how many or how much [with genitive]
   • c. 992, Ælfric of Eynsham, Palm Sunday: On the Lord’s Passion‎:

     Iūdās sōna ēode tō þāra Iudēisċena rǣde and openlīċe befræġn hwæt hīe him fēos ġeūðen ġif hē þone Hǣlend him belǣwan meahte.

     Judas immediately went to the Jewish council and openly asked how much money they would give him for betraying Jesus.

   • late 9th century, Orosius, History Against the Pagans‎:

     Be þām hringum man meahte witan hwæt Rōmāna duguþe ġefeallen wæs, for þon þe hit wæs þēaw mid him on þām dagum þæt nān ōðer ne mōste gyldenne hring werian būtan hē æðeles cynnes wǣre.

     You could tell by the rings how much of the Roman nobility had fallen, because the custom back then was that no one could wear a gold ring unless they were from a noble family.

   • late 9th century, Orosius, History Against the Pagans‎:

     Hwæðer Rōmāne hit witon nū ǣnegum menn tō seċġenne hwæt heora folces on Ispāniam on fēawum ġēarum forwurde?

     Do the Romans know any more how many of their people perished in Spain within a few years?

   • (Can we date this quote?), The Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn‎:

     Sæġe mē hwæt fisċcynna sīe.

     Tell me how many species of fish there are.

5. anything, something
   • late 9th century, Orosius, History Against the Pagans‎:

     Sēo lēo bringþ hungrigum hwelpum hwæt tō etenne.

     The lion brings hungry cubs something to eat.

   • c. 1011, Byrhtferth, Manual‎:

     Ġif þū tōdǣlst hwæt on fēower, sē fēorða dǣl biþ quadrans ġeċīeġed, and þā ōðre dōdrantēs bēoþ ġenemnede.

     If you divide something into fours, one part is called a quadrāns (“one fourth”), and the other three are called dōdrantēs (“three fourth”)

   • late 10th century, Ælfric of Eynsham, Preface to Genesis‎:

     Þā unġelǣredan prēostas, ġif hīe hwæt lȳtles understandaþ of þām Lǣdenbōcum, þonne þyncþ him sōna þæt hīe mæġen mǣre lārēowas bēon.

     If uneducated priests understand any little thing from the Latin texts, they immediately think they can be famous scholars.

6. who (in questions and implied questions about who someone is)
   • late 10th century, Ælfric of Eynsham, Old English Hexateuch‎, Genesis 27:32:

     Þā cwæþ Isaāc, “Hwæt eart þū?” Hē andwyrde and cwæþ, “Iċ eom Ēsau.”

     Then Isaac said, “Who are you?” He answered and said, “I'm Esau.”

   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels‎, John 21:12:

     Nān þāra þe þǣr sæt ne dorste hine āscian hwæt hē wǣre. Hīe wisson þæt hit wæs Dryhten.

     No one sitting there dared to ask him who he was. They knew it was the Lord.

   • c. 992, Ælfric of Eynsham, The Second Sunday After Pentecost‎:

     Ġif iċ wisse hwæt hē wǣre, iċ wolde liċġan æt his fōtum.

     If I'd known who he was, I would have lain at his feet.

   • c. 992, Ælfric of Eynsham, The Passion of the Apostles Simon and Jude‎:

     Sē ealdormann hīe befræġn hwæt hīe wǣren, oþþe hwanon hīe cōmen, oþþe hwȳ hīe þæder cōmen.

     The general asked them who they were, where they came from, and why they came there.

   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels‎, John 8:52-53:

     Þā cwǣdon þā Iūdēas, “Nū wē witon þæt þū eart wōd. Ābrahām wæs dēad, and þā wītegan, and þū cwist, ‘Ġif hwā mīn word ġehielt, ne biþ hē nǣfre dēad.’ Cwist þū þæt þū sīe mǣrra þonne ūre fæder Ābrahām, þe wæs dēad? And þā wītegan wǣron dēade! Hwæt þyncþ þē þæt þū sīe?”

     Then the Jews said, “Now we know you’re crazy. Abraham died, and so did the prophets, and you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, they will never die.’ Are you saying you’re greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you think you are?”

語形変化

派生語

派生した語

• Middle English: what, whad, whote, watte, wath, wad, qhat, whæt, whæht, waht, waet, wæht, weht, hweat (Southern West Mid)
  • English: what
  • Scots: what, whate, whit, whut, wha', quhat, quat, fat, faht, phat, fit, fut, fout, at
  • Yola: faade, fhaade, faad, fade, f'ad

副詞

hwæt

1. indeed, how (exclamative), what (exclamative)
   • c. 1000, Beowulf (Cotton MS Vitellius A XV)‎:

     Hwæt wē Gārdena in ġeārdagum þēodcyninga þrym ġefrūnon; […]

     Indeed we have heard about the might of the great kings of the Spear Danes in days of yore; […]

   • 10th century, anonymous author, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Hwæt þū, mīn drihten, canst and wāst mīne heortan!

     How you know my heart, my Lord!

   • late 9th century, St. Augustine, translated by Alfred the Great, Soliloquies:

     Hwæt þū mē for heardne lǣtst!

     What an ass you take me for!

使用する際の注意点

Beginning with the work of German linguist Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), scholars have presumed hwæt may have had the capacity to appear as an interjection. However, in recent decades, this assumption has been demonstrated to be false. Syntactically, the term hwæt behaves not as an interjection, but as an adverb. In the work of Ælfric of Eynsham, the word is not listed as an interjection, and it appears zero times in 85 glosses of Latin ecce.

語源 2

From Proto-West Germanic *hwat (“quick, sharp, brave”), from Proto-Germanic *hwataz, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷh₁dós. Cognate with Icelandic hvatur and Norwegian Bokmål kvat.

形容詞

hwæt (comparative hwætra, superlative hwatost)

1. quick
2. active, vigorous
3. bold, brave
   • 10th century, The Seafarer:

     Forþon nis þæs mōdwlonc mon ofer eorþan, ne his ġifena þæs god, ne in ġeoguþe tō þæs hwæt, ne in his dǣdum tō þæs dēor, ne him his dryhten tō þæs hold, þæt hē ā his sǣfōre sorge næbbe, tō hwon hine dryhten ġedōn wille.

     Thus, there is no mind-proud man over Earth, nor his gifts of god, nor too bold in youth, nor too daring in his deeds, nor his Lord too kind for him, who would never have his seafarer sorrow, for which the Lord would like to put on him.

語形変化

派生語

参照

Further reading

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “hwæt”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.