Old English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-West Germanic *dohter. Cognate with German Tochter and Dutch dochter.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dohtor f

  1. daughter
    • Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
      ⁊ þǣre ilcan nihte wes Ēadwine[s] dohtor ācenned.
      And on that same night Edwin's daughter was born.
    • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
      An. DCCCLV Hēr hǣþene men ǣrest on Sċeapiġġe ofer winter sǣtan...⁊ þȳ ilcan ġēare [Aþelwulf cing] ferde to Rōme mid myċelre weorðnesse ⁊ þǣr wæs XII mōnoð wuniġende, ⁊ him þā hāmweard fōr ⁊ him þā Carl Francna cing his dohtor ġēaf him tō cwēne, ⁊ æfter þām tō his lēodum cōm...
      Year 855 In this year the heathens stayed on Sheppey over the winter for the first time...And in the same year [King Athelwulf] went to Rome with much honor, and stayed there for twelve months. And them he went home and King Carl [the Bald] of the Franks gave him his daughter as a queen, and after that Athelwulf returned to his people.
    • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church
      Sumes ġerēfan dohtor hē āhredde fram fefore þurh his ǣrendġewrit, þe hēo ādliġ underfeng.
      He freed a certain reeve's daughter from a fever with his written letter, which she received while sick.

Usage notes

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  • The genitive singular dehter is occasionally found, presumably by analogy with the consonant stems.[1] In late Old English, dohtres is also seen, reflecting the beginnings of the spread of the a-stem genitive singular ending -es, although doghter is still frequent in Middle English besides doghtres.

Declension

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singular plural
nominative dohtor dohtor, dohtra, dohtru
accusative dohtor dohtor, dohtra, dohtru
genitive dohtor dohtra
dative dehter dohtrum

Descendants

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References

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  1. ^ Hogg, Richard; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, volume 2: Morphology, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 132