Abstract
Our etymological understanding of PDEbreadhas been influenced, to a considerable extent, by Otto Jespersen's comment that ‘An Englishman cannotthriveor beillordiewithout Scandinavian words; they are to the language whatbreadandeggsare to the daily fare.’ This article analyses the evidence behind the possibility that PDEbreadmight represent a Norse-derived semantic loan, i.e. that OEbrēadacquired the meaning ‘bread’, which was more frequently expressed by OEhlāf, because of the influence of its Viking Age Norse cognate (cp. OIcbrauð‘bread’). On the basis of an in-depth study of the attestations of OEbrēadandhlāfand their early Middle English reflexes, as well as the use of their cognates in various Germanic languages, the article challenges the traditional view that OEbrēadoriginally meant ‘piece, morsel of bread’ and concludes that Norse influence is not needed in order to account for the semantic history of PDEbread.
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