ieg

Old English

Alternative forms

• ēġ, īġ

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *auwju, from Proto-Germanic *awjō, originally a substantive adjective of *ahwō (“river”) ( > Old English ēa), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂.

Cognate with Old High German ouwa (German Aue (“meadow”)), Middle Dutch ouwe, Old Norse ey (Swedish ö). More distantly related to Latin aqua (“water”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i͜yːj/
• Rhymes: -i͜yːj

Noun

īeġ f (nominative plural īeġa or īeġe) (West Saxon)

1. island
2. dry land in a marsh
   • c. 980, Wulf and Eadwacer:

     Wulf is on īeġe, iċ on ōþerre. Fæst is þæt ēġlond, fenne biworpen. Sindon wælrēowe weras þǣr on īġe; willað hȳ hine āþeċġan, ġif hē on þrēat cymeð. Unġelīċe is us.

     Wulf is on an island, I am on another. That island is steady, hemmed in by fens. There are kill-worried men on the island; they wish to take him, if he will come to the crowd. It is differently for us.

Declension

Strong ō-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	īeġ	īeġa, īeġe
accusative	īeġe	īeġa, īeġe
genitive	īeġe	īeġa
dative	īeġe	īeġum

Derived terms

• Æþelinga īeġ (“Athelney”)
• īġeoþ
• īeġland
• Sċēapīeġ
• Sēolesīeġ (“Selsey”)

Descendants

• Middle English: ei, i, ie
  • English: ey

Further reading

• John R. Clark Hall (1916), “ieg”, in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[1], 2nd edition, New York: Macmillan