Frum-sceaft
Bosworth & Toller Anglo-Saxon Old English Dictionary - frum-sceaft
According to the Old English Dictionary:
e;
- frum-sceaft
- f. Substitute: es; m. (where the gender is marked it is masculine. Cf. too þone fruman sceaft (and add: (1) a first shaping, birth:--Þé wǽre sélre . . . þǽr þú wurde ǽt frymþe (frumsceafte, v. l.) fugel . . . þonne þú ǽfre on moldan man gewurde it had been better for thee . . . if thou hadst been born a bird . . . than that thou shouldst have been ever a man on earth, Seel. 79. Þá þe hine æt frumsceafte forð onsendon ǽnne ofer ýðe umbor wesende, B. 45. (1 a) the first shaping of the world, the creation:--Tunglu him healdad betwuh sibbe . . . swá hí gewenede wuldres ealdor æt frumsceafte (cf. þá ealdan sibbe ðe hí on gesceapne wǽron, Bt. 39, 13; F. 232, 26), Met. 29, 7: Rä. 4, 14: An. 798. Seó forme bóc, Genesis, beféhð þás racu fram frumsceafte, Ælfc. T. Grn. 3, 19. (2) origin:--Eálá gé eorþlican men, hwæt gé þeáh magon hwæthwego ongitan swelce eów mǽte be eówrum frumsceafte, ꝥ is God vos o terrena animalia, tenui licet imagine, vestrum tamen principium somniatis, Bt. 26, 1; F. 90, 4. (3) original constitution or condition:--Clǽne wæs þeós eorðe on hyre frumsceafte, ac wé hí habbað syððan áfýlede, Wlfst. 92, 4. Geworhte hé týn engla werod . . . on micelre fægernisse, fela þúsenda, on þám frumsceafta þæt hí . . . hine wurðedon ealle líchamleáse, leóhte and strange, búton synnum on gesǽlðe libbende, swá wlitiges gecindes swá wé secgan ne magon, Ælfc. T. Grn. 2, 25. [v. N. E. D. frumschaft.] frum-sceaft