NODE / 0905boundaryBeyond secure reconstruction
UNKNOWN
No securely reconstructed direct ancestor is currently promoted beyond Old High German wīb.
- DATE
- before the reviewed Old High German wīb horizon
- SENSE
- wib deep boundary
- FAMILY
- unclassified
- CANONICAL KEY
- boundary:153:2
Old English wīf meets this dossier at a cited cognate horizon rather than through an invented parent.
01ANCESTRAL EDGES
ROOT OF THIS ROOT
*THE TRAIL ENDS HERE.No reviewed parent edge extends beyond this canonical node.
02DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES
THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP
DESCENDANTknowledge boundaryboundary
Old High German · Old High German · woman wife nounwīb
woman; wife in recorded expressions
- SOUND
- No reconstructed direct parent is promoted beyond attested Old High German wīb.
- MEANING
- The historical woman and wife word reaches an unresolved origin rather than a fabricated proto-form.
- SCHOLAR
- SET-U editorial boundary · Duden Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- boundary — Duden explicitly labels the origin unclear and offers two possibilities only as perhaps.
DESCENDANTcognate horizonprobable
Old English · Old English · woman wife nounwīf
woman; wife
- SOUND
- Merriam-Webster identifies Old English wīf as akin to Old High German wīb but supplies no directional derivation or common reconstructed form.
- MEANING
- The English woman and wife noun meets the Old High German field at an unresolved comparative horizon.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster Editors · Duden Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — Cognacy is reported, but the common parent is intentionally left UNKNOWN.
03TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE
EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE
This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.
- UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
- 9
- REVIEWED EDGES
- 9
- DEEPEST PATH
- 4
- MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
- 3
HISTORICAL STEP 012 EDGES
STEP 01knowledge boundaryboundary
- SOUND
- No reconstructed direct parent is promoted beyond attested Old High German wīb.
- MEANING
- The historical woman and wife word reaches an unresolved origin rather than a fabricated proto-form.
SET-U editorial boundary · Duden Editors1 CITATIONEDGE 902 ↗ STEP 01cognate horizonprobable
- SOUND
- Merriam-Webster identifies Old English wīf as akin to Old High German wīb but supplies no directional derivation or common reconstructed form.
- MEANING
- The English woman and wife noun meets the Old High German field at an unresolved comparative horizon.
Merriam-Webster Editors · Duden Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 907 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 023 EDGES
STEP 02compound componentestablished
- SOUND
- Old English wīfman contains wīf as its first lexical component.
- MEANING
- Woman or wife combines with the separately modeled human-person component mann.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 806 ↗ STEP 02continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Middle English wif continues Old English wīf.
- MEANING
- Woman and wife senses continue through medieval English.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 867 ↗ STEP 02continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Freie Universität Berlin orders Old High German WĪB before Middle High German WÎP and explains that word-final b was pronounced voiceless and represented as p in Middle High German spelling.
- MEANING
- The woman and wife field continues across the language stages.
Duden Editors · Freie Universität Berlin Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 906 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 033 EDGES
STEP 03continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Old English wīfman contracts and assimilates into Middle English womman.
- MEANING
- The compound remains a woman noun while its internal morphology becomes opaque.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 805 ↗ STEP 03continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Middle English wif develops into modern wife with the Great Vowel Shift and final silent-e spelling.
- MEANING
- The older woman-or-wife field narrows toward the spouse sense.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 866 ↗ STEP 03historical continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Freie Universität Berlin places Middle High German WÎP before Early New High German WEYB and Modern German WEIB: the long vowel î diphthongizes to ei, while final devoicing remains pronounced but is no longer marked by p in modern spelling.
- MEANING
- Woman and wife senses continue while current usage becomes obsolete, jocular, ironic, discriminatory, or derogatory.
Duden Editors · Freie Universität Berlin Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 905 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 041 EDGE
STEP 04continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Middle English womman develops to modern woman with reduction of the unstressed final syllable and modern spelling.
- MEANING
- The female-person compound remains the ordinary adult-female noun.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 804 ↗ “Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.
04RECORDED EVIDENCE
ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.The reviewed graph does not yet attach a source-reported or directly inspected witness to this canonical form.
05EDITORIAL REUSE
WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE