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013
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
Old English weak verbexact headword
hatian
An attested Old English verb for hating whose objects include persons, enemies, vices, and deeds. It continues a reconstructed Germanic weak verb commonly represented as *hatōjan-, but published reconstructions vary, its relationship to the noun base is derivational rather than direct word-to-word descent, and the proposed deeper Indo-European route remains semantically opaque.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · verbexact historical form
hate
An inherited Germanic hostility word whose English noun and verb histories converge imperfectly: Old English preserves both hete and hatian, Middle English may have remodeled the noun from the verb, and the proposed deeper Indo-European family remains semantically opaque.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗Old English weak-verb lemmadossier summary
hettan
An Old English weak-verb lemma supported by a strikingly narrow surface record. A full-corpus lemmatisation inventory lists only hettende under hettan; Bosworth–Toller redirects the bare headword to hettend, “enemy,” while Orel compares the verb with Gothic hatjan and Middle High German hetzen. Clark Hall instead assigns hettende to hatian. The dossier therefore separates the comparative verb, the recorded enemy word, and the unresolved lemma assignment.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗021
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
0310
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 8
openprobableexact word
Is the Germanic parent exactly *hatōjan-?
The inherited weak verb is secure, but scholarly notation varies. Merriam-Webster prints *hatōjan-; Orel prints *xatēnan ~ *xatōjanan and includes a second related *xatjanan formation.
openproposedexact word
Was pursuit the original meaning of hatian?
Possibly relevant, not established. Beowulf, hettan, German hetzen, and the action contexts motivate a pursuit or persecution proposal, but the deeper semantic comparison remains unresolved.
resolvedestablishedexact word
Did hatian mean only an inward feeling?
No. Its grammatical objects include the world or people, a righteous person, subjects’ vices, former enemies, divine enemies, robbers, plunderers, and hostile deeds.
resolvedestablishedexact word
Are hatian “hate” and hátian “become hot” one word?
No. Bosworth–Toller lists separate headwords with different vowel quantity, meanings, examples, and Germanic comparisons. Modern typography that drops macrons can hide the distinction.
resolvedestablishedexact word
Does the John 7:7 record establish the first use of hatian?
No. It is one edited occurrence among many textual traditions. Without a complete witness comparison and direct manuscript inspection, it cannot be promoted as the earliest surviving token.
openproposedposition text
Did hate originally mean pursuit or persecution?
Possibly, but not securely. Liberman points to Old English hatian in a pursuit context, German hetzen, Old English hettan, and the pursuer Hati; he presents pursuit as the most promising concrete history while leaving the rest murky.
openprobableposition text
Is hettende a verbal participle or a lexical noun meaning enemy?
The evidence supports both analyses in different editorial systems. Tío Sáenz lemmatizes hettende under hettan; Clark Hall calls it a participle of hatian; Bosworth–Toller lists hettende among the forms of the masculine noun hettend, “enemy.”
openprobableposition text
Are hettan and hatian the same Old English verb?
Probably not historically, but the surviving forms are easy to merge. Orel assigns hettan to *xatjanan and hatian to a separate *xatēnan ~ *xatōjanan formation; Clark Hall nevertheless sends hettende to hatian, and Bosworth–Toller cross-refers hettan to hatian.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 2
RANK 26GRADE Aexact ranked word
Old English hated vices and deeds as well as people.
Bosworth–Toller’s Pastoral Care examples make conduct grammatical: rulers hate their subjects’ vices, and the text distinguishes loving what enemies are from hating what they do. The historical verb therefore records directed moral and hostile judgment, not only an inward emotion label.
RANK 25GRADE Aranked reveal
Hate was enemy-directed action as well as feeling in Old English.
Old English hatian could mean treating as an enemy, persecuting, or injuring; Beowulf puts the verb beside hostile deeds. The deeper claim that pursuit was the first meaning remains open, and the graph says so.
042
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
historical dictionary12 CLAIM LINKS
HATIAN — An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Dictionary H
Joseph Bosworth · Thomas Northcote Toller · Jonathan Slocum / 1898
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗digitized scholarly edition5 CLAIM LINKS
Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon poem — glossary entry hatian
James A. Harrison · Robert Sharp / 1893
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗056
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus
Electronic Beowulf critical edition report of hatode
hatian / hate / Beowulf line 2319
Electronic Beowulf, Fifth Editionexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus
Electronic Beowulf critical edition report of hatian
hatian / hate / Beowulf line 2466
Electronic Beowulf, Fifth Editionexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus
John 7:7 occurrence reported by Bosworth–Toller
hatian / hatian / Old English West Saxon Gospel record
HATIAN — An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Dictionary Hexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus
Pastoral Care occurrence reported by Bosworth–Toller
hatian / hatian / Old English Pastoral Care record
HATIAN — An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Dictionary Hexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus
Sweet’s edited Pastoral Care distinction
hatian / hatian / Old English Pastoral Care record
King Alfred’s West-Saxon Version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care, page 353exact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus
Electronic Beowulf critical-edition report of hatian
hatian / hatian / Beowulf line 2466
Electronic Beowulf, Fifth Editionexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗06
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