A Reconsideration of Old English fāh

Abstract

The Old English (OE) adjective fāh—a word bearing a complex semantic profile and appearing in both poetic and non-poetic genres—has recently come under scrutiny. Filip Missuno argues that although fāh is usually listed in lexical aids as two separate lemmata, the words had actually fallen together into one polysemous lexeme bearing meanings of both lemmata, and that fāh 2 ‘particolored’ had disappeared as a separate lexeme in OE. Through diachronic evidence of pre-OE and post-OE forms, and through synchronic evidence that examines fāh’s place in the whole of the OE lexicon (rather than just poetry, as Missuno does), I demonstrate that fāh 1 ‘hostile’ and fāh 2 ‘particolored’ are in fact separate lexemes, and their lexical relationship is one of homophony and not polysemy. I also show that the allomorphic forms fāg 1 and fāg 2, previously thought to be the result of phonological processes in late OE, actually date from pre-Germanic and are beginning to show principled differentiation in OE records: allomorph fāg is being associated with the ‘particolored’ meaning while allomorph fāh is associated with the ‘hostile’ meaning. This association is loose in OE but produces distinct reflexes in late Middle English (foe from fāh, and fawe from fāg) with clearly differentiated semantics. Missuno is correct that the meanings of fāh 1 and fāh 2 show some overlap with one another, but I argue that this is an example of conventionalized word play, creating intentional associations between two distinct lexemes, rather than a seamless polysemous blend.