Old English · noun
ealdra cwena spell
Normalised ealdra cwēna spell
- Part of speech
- noun, neuter
- Declension
- strong a-stem
- Modern English
- wives'old wives' taletaleold
Meaning
-
old wives' tale
Declension
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ealdra cwēna spell | ealdra cwēna spell |
| Accusative | ealdra cwēna spell | ealdra cwēna spell |
| Genitive | ealdra cwēna spelles | ealdra cwēna spella |
| Dative | ealdra cwēna spelle | ealdra cwēna spellum |
All forms (5)
Etymology
Literally, “old women's story”. Here, cwēn (whence queen) retains its most ancient (viz. original) meaning of “woman”, much similarly to how old wives' tale preserves wife's original meaning (which is coincidentally the same). As such, this expression might have originated in times immemorial, considering that *wīb (whence wīf) had already become the normal word for “woman” by Proto-West Germanic times.
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