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Anglo-Saxon

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bunda

  • noun [ masculine ]
Dictionary links
Grammar
bunda, bonda, an; m.
a wedded or married man, a husband; maritus, sponsus
Show examples

  • Ne mæg nán wíf hire bondan [bundan

    • MS. B, note 57
    ] forbeódan, ðæt he ne móte into his cotan gelogian ðæt ðæt he wille

    no wife may forbid her husband, that he may not put into his cot what he will,

    • L. Cnut. pol. 74
      • ;
    • Wilk. 145, 41
      • ;
    • Th. i. 418, 23-25
      • ;
    • Schmd. 312, 76, § I
      • .

  • Sé hit bonda, sé hit wíf

    sive maritus sit, sive uxor,

    • Hick. Diss. Ep. 18, 40
      • .
the father or head of a family, a householder; paterfamilias, œconomus
Show examples

  • Swá ymbe friðes bóte swá ðam bondan [bundan

    • MS. A. L. C. S. 8]
    sí sélost and ðam þeófan sí láðost so concerning frithes-bót

    as may be best for the householder [patrifamilias] and worst for the thief,

    • L. Ænh. Wilk. 122, 40
      • ;
    • Eth. vi. 32
      • ;
    • Th. i. 322, 27
      • ;
    • Schmd. 232, § 32
      • :
    • L. Cnut. pol. 8
      • ;
    • Wilk. 134, 40
      • ;
    • Th. i. 380, 14
      • ;
    • Schmd. 274, 8
      • .

  • And ðǽr se bonda [MS. B, bunda] sæt uncwyd and unbecrafod sitte ðæt wif and ða cild on ðam ylcan unbesacen. And gif se bonda [MS. B, bunda] beclypod wǽre, etc.

    and where the householder dwelt without claim or contest, let the wife and the children dwell in the same, without litigation. And if the householder had been cited, etc.

    • L. Cnut. pol. 70
      • ;
    • Wilk. 144, 39
      • ;
    • Th. i. 414, 21
      • ;
    • Schmd. 310, 72
      • .

    The early Latin version is, Et ubi bonda [bunda,

    • L. Th. i. 526, 3
    ], i. e. paterfamilias manserit, sine compellatione et calumpnia, sint uxor et pueri in eodem, sine querela. Et si [bunda, i. e. paterfamilias] compellatus fuerat, etc.

    • L. Cnut. 73
      • ;
    • Th. ii. 542, 13-15
      • .
every word has its history by which its introduction and use are best ascertained. Bede tells us [
  • Bk. i. 25, 2
] that Ethelbert, king of Kent, married a Christian wife Bertha, a Frankish princess. The queen prepared the way for the friendly reception of Augustine and his missionary followers by Ethelbert in A. D. 597, who was the first to found a school in Kent, and wrote Laws which are said to be asette on Augustines dæge established in the time of Augustine, between A. D. 597 and 604. The cultivation and writing of Anglo-Saxon [Englisc] began with the conversion of Ethelbert. Marriage, and the household arrangements depending upon it, were regulated by the law of the church, and indigenous compound words were formed to express that law, — thus ǽ law, divine law; Cristes ǽ Christi lex. Rihte ǽ legitimum matrimonium,
  • Bd. 4, 5
    • ;
  • S. 573, 17
    • .
Ǽw
wedlock, marriage,
ǽw-boren
lawfully born, born in wedlock
: ǽw-breca, -brica, m.
wedlock breaker, an adulterer
: ǽw-fæst-man
marriage-fast-man, a wedded man, a husband:
ǽw-nian
to wed, take a wife
.
Grammar
bunda, Hús-bunda, -bonda
a wedded man, husband, householder.
This compound is one of the oldest in the language. It is found in the interpolated passage of
  • Matt. xx. between vers. 28 and 29.
The passage is in all the Anglo-Saxon MSS. of the Gospels, except the interlineary glosses. The Anglo-Saxon is a literal version of the Augustinian MS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford [
  • Codex August. 857 D. 2. 14
], the Old Italic version, from which the text of the Latin vulgate of the Gospels was formed by St. Jerome about A. D. 384. Though we do not know the exact dates when the Gospels were translated from Latin into Anglo-Saxon, Cuthbert assures us that Bede finished the last Gospel, St. John, on May 27, 735, [see
  • Pref. to Goth. and A. Sax. Gos. Bos. pp. ix-xii.
] As the three preceding Gospels were most likely translated before St. John, then the following sentence was written before 735. Se hús-bonda [hús-bunda in
  • MS. Camb. Ii, 2, 11
] háte ðé arísan and rýman ðam óðrum the householder bid thee rise and make room for the other,
  • Notes to Bosworth's Goth. and A. Sax. Gos. Mt. xx. 28, p. 576.
Hús-bonda is also used by Ælfric in his version of the Scriptures about
  • 970, Ex. 3, 22.
Grammar
bunda, Bunda, bonda
Grammar
bunda, from bindan; p. band, bundon; pp. bunden
to bind
one wedded or bound, a husband,
must have been of earlier origin than the compound hús-bunda. It is a well-known rule that in Anglo-Saxon a person or agent is denoted by adding a, as býtl a hammer, býtla a hammerer; ánweald
rule, government,
ánwealda a ruler, governor; bunden, bund bound, bunda, bonda one bound, a husband. Bunda might be banda as well as bonda, for a is often used for o, as mon for man a man. The early use of hús-bunda, -bonda would at once indicate that it was not likely to be of Norse or Icelandic origin. It could not be derived from the Norse búa to dwell; part. búandi, bóandi dwelling; nor even from the A. Sax. búan to dwell, because the ú and ó are long in the Norse búa to dwell, búandi, bóandi dwelling, and in the A. Sax. búan to dwell, búende dwelling, búend a dweller; while the u and o are always short in bunda and bonda. So, in other compounds, from bindan to bind, as bonde-land bond or leased land, land let on binding conditions. Bunda then is a pure Anglo-Saxon word derived from bindan to bind. Búan to dwell, with the part. búende dwelling, and the noun búend, es; m. a dweller, is quite a distinct word with its own numerous compounds,
Similar entries
v. búende, búend, es; m.
Linked entries
v.  bonda.
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “bunda.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/5391.

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  • bunda, n.

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