| 释义 |
-lock, suffix
in mod. Eng. occurring only in wedlock, represents OE. -lác, the second element of numerous compounds (usually neuter: rarely masc.) in which the first element is a n. OE. had about a dozen of these compounds (those in which -lác means ‘offering’, lake n.1, are not counted); in all these the second element may be rendered ‘actions or proceedings, practice’, as brýdlác nuptials, beadolác, feohtlác, heaðolác warfare, hǽmedlác, wiflác carnal intercourse, réaflác robbery, wedlác pledge-giving, also espousals, nuptials, wítelác punishment, wróhtlác calumny. The -lác of these compounds should probably be identified with lác play, sport, lake n.2; the words meaning ‘warfare’, which may have been the earliest examples of this use, may be compared with the synonymous compounds in -pleᵹa play. Of the OE. compounds of lác three (brýdlác, feohtlác, réaflác) survived into early ME., and wedlác still survives with altered meaning. In ME. the suffix was sometimes assimilated in form to the etymologically equivalent but functionally distinct Scandinavian -laik. A few examples, not recorded in OE., appear in early ME.: dweomerlak (demerlayk), ferlac, shendlac, treulac, wohlac (cf. wouhleche), the last from a vb.-stem, woȝ- to woo; but none of these survived later than the 14th century. |