† angeadv.n.

Etymology: Originally (in Old English) cognate with Middle Dutch ange , anghe , Old High German ango (Middle High German ange ), both adverbs < the same Germanic base as the adjectives (with i-mutation) Old English enge narrow, close, distressed, oppressive, West Frisian ing narrow, Middle Dutch enge narrow, limited, short (Dutch eng ), Middle Low German enge narrow, close, clandestine, confidential, Old High German engi narrow, distressed, anxious (Middle High German eng , German eng ; compare also Old High German (in inflected forms) ang- ), and (with u-mutation) Old Icelandic ǫngr narrow, constricted, (inflecting as u -stem) Gothic aggwus narrow < the same Indo-European base as ancient Greek ἄγχειν to squeeze, strangle (see anchoic adj.), classical Latin angere to trouble, vex (see angor n.), Sanskrit aṃhu narrow, aṃhas distress, Avestan ązah distress, and (with velar suffix) Old Church Slavonic ǫzŭkŭ , Armenian anjowk narrow, (with different suffix) Lithuanian ankštas cramped, narrow, and (with different ablaut grade) the Celtic base of the second element of Early Irish cumung narrow, constricted. In later use as noun (in Middle English) probably reflecting reinterpretation of the characteristic construction of the Old English adverb with a noun. With use as noun compare (with i-mutation) Old English engu narrowness, confined place, Middle Low German enge narrowness, distress, Old High German engī narrowness, straits, distress (Middle High German enge , German Enge ), and (with u-mutation) Old Icelandic ǫngur (plural) anguish, distress. Compare further the Germanic parallels cited at anger n.Middle Dutch ange , Old High German ango are attested in the same sense as the Old English adverb, in the same characteristic construction with dative of the person affected by distress or anxiety (compare very similar use of the compound Middle Dutch banghe , Middle Low German bange , Middle High German bange ; compare by prep.). Middle High German ange is also attested in the literal sense ‘narrowly’. All uses in the Ormulum are apparently to be interpreted as showing a noun, but the surface resemblance of the construction in quot. c1175¹ at sense B. to the inherited construction in quot. eOE at sense A. suggests the path along which reinterpretation of the word as noun proceeded. With the lack of i-mutation in the stem vowel in Old English ange compare also Old English ang- in compounds and derivatives, apparently reflecting an unmutated form of the adjective, as e.g. angbrēost tightness in the chest, angmōd anxious, sad, angsum narrow, anxious, painful, etc. However, occasional reflexes of the adjectival base without i-mutation attested in the West Germanic languages may be of more than one origin and perhaps include late by-forms. Compare also the following, which may show the Middle English reflex of an unmutated form of the adjective (perhaps a derivative: compare -ed suffix²) in the literal sense ‘narrow, constricted’ (or perhaps, by extension, ‘precipitous, steep’):a1400 Prose Life Christ (Pepys) (1922) 19 Hij..ladden hym upon þe anged [perhaps read ange] side of þe heiȝ mounteyne and wolden haue done hym tumble adoune.