English
alfet
Alfet comes from Medieval Latin alfetum, and goes back to Old English alfæt ‘fire-vat’.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150alfæt‘fire-vat’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500alfetum
- Englishearliest quotation 1981alfet
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150alfæt‘fire-vat’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500alfetum
- Englishearliest quotation 1981alfet
Earliest quotation: 1981, Edmund Apffel, The Last Days at St. Saturn's: “Miss Twig, head bowed at the far end of…”
A compound of āl ‘fire’ + fæt ‘vat’
Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- ‘to burn, kindle’
Proto-Indo-European *h₂éydʰ-lom
Proto-Germanic *ailą ‘fire’
Proto-West Germanic *ail ‘fire’
Old English āl ‘fire’
Every English word from Old English alfæt
Today it means
noun A cauldron of boiling water into which an accused person plunged his forearm, used as a form of trial in Medieval England.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English alfæt / alfet