Old English · noun
weofod
Normalised wēofod
- Part of speech
- noun, neuter
- Declension
- strong a-stem
- IPA
- /ˈwe͜oː.fod/[ˈwe͜oː.vod]
- Syllables
- ˈwe͜oː · fod (2 syllables)
- Modern English
- altar
Meaning
-
altar
Eft æt sumum sæle ætslād sē hālga wer on ðām hēalīcum gradum æt þām hālgum wēofode, swā þæt hē fornēan eal wearð tōcwȳsed; ac on þǣre nihte hine ġelācnode God, ðurh his hālgan enġel, tō ansundre hǣle.
Also, at a certain hall, the holy man slipped on the high steps at the holy altar, so that almost his whole body became bruised; but in the night, God restored him to full health through his holy angel.
Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church
Declension
All forms (6)
Etymology
From pre-Old English *wīohbēod, equivalent to wēoh (“idol, image”) + bēod (“offering stage, dish”). The replacement of /b/ with /f/ is motivated by the fact that medial /b/ historically developed to [v], and the word was no longer felt to be a compound.
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/weofod · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution