Etymology: Probably from the reflex of unattested Old English *writelian (see below) + -ing suffix1. The Old English weak Class II verb *writelian is cognate with or formed similarly to Old Saxon writolon to prattle < the same West Germanic base (with suffix: compare -le suffix 3) as Old English writian (also wreotian) to chirp, to chatter, to rattle; further origin uncertain: probably imitative.Perhaps compare writol- , writel- , attested as an element in early place names and boundary markers in Anglo-Saxon charters, especially in Writola burna (in an 8th-cent. copy of a charter of late 7th-century composition), the name of a river in Essex, probably the Beam. Compare further the boundary markers writelanstan , Dartmoor, Devon (11th cent.), writeles þorn , Meon, Hampshire (in a mid 12th-cent. copy of a charter of the 10th cent.), and the settlement name Writele , Essex (a1076; also as Writelam (1086); now Writtle). These may imply currency of an otherwise unattested adjective writol in the sense ‘emitting a soft repetitive noise, e.g. babbling (of water in a stream)’. If so, such an adjective might (alternatively) represent a related suffixed stem (< the same West Germanic base; compare -le suffix 1) from which Old English *writelian and its Old Saxon cognate could be derived.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2021).
n.c1275