Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

Dictionary online

æ
þ

Æ

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Grammar
Æ, The short or unaccented Anglo-Saxon æ has a sound like ai in main and f
Wright's OE grammar
§134; §266; §390; §565;
airy, as appears from these cognate words
Show examples
  • Wæl wail, brædan to braid, nægel a nail, dæg, spær, læt, snæce, mæst, æsp, bær, etc.
The short or unaccented æ stands only
before a single consonant; as Stæf, hwæl, dæg:
a single consonant followed by
e in nouns; Stæfes, stæfe, hwæles, dæges, wæter, fæder, æcer:
or before
st, sc, fn, ft; Gæst, æsc, hræfn, cræft:
before
pp, bb, tt, cc, ss; Æppel, cræbba, hæbben, fætte, fættes, wræcca, næsse:
before double consonants, arising from the inflection of monosyllabic adjectives
Show examples
  • Lætne, lætre, lætra, from læt late; hwætne, hwætre, hwætra from hwæt quick.
In the declension of monosyllabic nouns and adjectives, e is rejected from the short or unaccented æ, and becomes a, when a single consonant, or st, sc, is followed by a, o, u in nouns, and by a, o, u, e in adjectives; as Stæf, pl. stafas, g. stafa, d. stafum; hwæl, pl. hwalas; dæg, pl. dagas. adj. Læt late; g. m. n. lates; d. latum; se lata the late; latost, latemest, latest: Smæl small; g. m. n. smales; d. smalum; se smala the small, etc. See short a in B. 3, p. 1, col. 1. 4. æ-, prefixed to words, like a-, often denotes
A negative, deteriorating or opposite signification, as From, away, out, without, etc. Like a, ge, etc. æ is sometimes prefixed to perfect tenses and perfect participles and other words without any perceptible alteration in the sense; as Céled, æ-céled cooled.
The Anglo-Saxon Rune for æ is ᚨ; , which is also put for æsc an ash-tree, the name of the letter. v. æsc. B. The long or accented ǽ has the sound of ea in meat, sea. The ǽ is found in the following words, which are represented by English terms of the same signification, having ea sounded as in deal, fear; Dǽl, fǽr, drǽd, lǽdan, brǽdo, hǽto, hwǽte, hǽþ, hǽðen, clǽne, lǽne, sǽ, ǽr, hǽlan, lǽran, tǽcan, tǽsan, tǽsel, wǽpen, etc.
The ǽ is known to be long, and therefore accented, when in monosyllables, assuming another syllable in declining, ǽ is found before a single consonant or st, sc, and followed in nouns by a, o, u, and in adjectives by a, o, u, or e; as Blǽda fruits; blǽdum: Dwǽs dull; g. m. dwǽses. The ǽ is often changed into á ; as Stǽnen stony, stán a stone; lǽr, lár lore.
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “Æ.” 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/306.

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