umbelap

English

WOTD – 15 March 2022

Etymology

PIE word
*h₂m̥bʰi

From Middle English umbelappen, umbelappe (“to clothe or wrap; to enclose, envelop; to beset or encircle (an enemy); to besiege; to interlace, overlap”) [and other forms],^[1] either from:

umb-, umbe- (prefix meaning ‘around, encircling, surrounding; covering, enveloping, wrapping’)^[2] (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“about, around, on either side of”)) + lappen (“to wrap; to place so as to enclose or enfold; to encase; to envelop; to clothe; to put on armour; to ensnare, snare”);^[3] or
um- (prefix meaning ‘around, encircling, surrounding; covering, enveloping, wrapping’)^[4] + bilappen (“to envelop; to clothe; to surround; to blend, mix”)^[5] (from bi- (completive, intensifying, or figurative prefix)^[6] + lappen (see above)).

Lappen is derived from lap, lappe (“loose part of a garment; folded or extended skirt, or loose sleeve, used to hold things; small piece of cloth or mail detached from a garment or coat of mail; a part, portion, share; a person’s lap; (also figuratively) a person’s bosom or breast; (anatomy) a loose part of the body (such as an earlobe or a lobe of the liver); female genitalia; cavity or sinus in the body; (in place names) piece of land at the edge of an estate or parish”)^[7] (from Old English læppa (“skirt; (anatomy) lobe”), from Proto-Germanic *lappô (“cloth; rag”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang down loosely (?)”)) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).^[8]

The English word is analysable as umbe- +‎ lap (“to enfold, envelop; to enwrap, wrap around”) or um- +‎ belap (“to lap or wrap around, envelop, surround”).^[9]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌʌmbɪˈlæp/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌʌmbəˈlæp/
Rhymes: -æp
Hyphenation: um‧be‧lap

Verb

umbelap (third-person singular simple present umbelaps, present participle umbelapping, simple past and past participle umbelapped)

(transitive, obsolete, chiefly in modern translations) To enshroud, to envelop; to surround.
Synonyms: (obsolete) belap, encompass, enwrap, lap
- [late 14th century, [anonymous], “Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight”, in Boris Ford, Francis Berry, editors, The Age of Chaucer […] (Pelican Guide to English Literature; I; Penguin Books; 290) (in Middle English), Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1954 (1972 reprint), →ISBN, part IV (An Anthology of Medieval Poems), page 369, lines 627–630:
  For hit is a figure that haldes · five pointes, / And eche line umbelappes · and loukes in other, / And aywhere hit is endeles; · and Englich hit callen / Overal, as I here, · the endles knot.
  For it [the emblem on Gawain’s shield, a pentagram] is a shape that has five points, / And each line overlaps and crosses another, / And everywhere it is endless, so in English it is called / Everywhere, as far as I know, "the endless knot".]
- [1435, Richard Rolle, “[The Fire of Love.] Of Syghyngis, Desyre & Mekenes of a Parfite Lufar; & of þe Differens of Wardly Lufe & Godly; & als of Meditacion̄. [Of Sighings, Desire & Meekenss of a Perfect Lover; & of the Difference of Worldly Love & Godly; & also of Meditation]”, in Richard Misyn, transl., edited by Ralph Harvey, The Fire of Love, and The Mending of Life or The Rule of Living. […] (in Middle English), London: […] [F]or the Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., […], published 1896, →OCLC, page 58:
  & þerfor godis wretħ on þame is sched, & rightwys venieans, with grete ferisnes of turmetis vmbelappyng.
  And therefore God's wrath on them is shed, and righteous vengeance, with great fierceness of torments umbelapping.
  A translation from Rolle’s De Incendio Amoris (c. 1340–1349) written in Latin.]
- 1537 February 22 (Gregorian calendar), “Captain of Poverty to the Constable of Mellyng”, in James Gairdner, editor, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. Preserved in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and Elsewhere in England, volume XII, part I, London: […] [F]or Her Majesty’s Stationery Office by Eyre and Spottiswoode, […], published 1890, →OCLC, paragraph 411, page 202:
  This 12 Feb. [Julian calendar] "at morn was un belapped on every side with our enemies the captain of Carlisle and gentlemen of our country of Westmoreland, and hath destroyed and slain many of our brethren and neighbours."
- 1835 March, “On Old English Poetical Facetiæ”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume III, London: William Pickering; John Bowyer Nichols and Son, →OCLC, page 275, column 2; quoting Thomas Feylde, A Contrauersye bytwene a Louer and a Iaye, London: […] Wynkyn de Worde, 1532?, →OCLC:
  Thus am I wrapped / And in woe umbelapped, / Such love hath me trapped, / Without any cure.
  Modernized from the original c. 1532 text.
- 1917, Henry Suso, “Orologium Sapientiæ: Her Showeth the Fifth Chapter of a Treatise Called Orologium Sapiencie in Manner of a Dialogue: And Treateth How We Shall Learn to Die”, in Frances M. M. Comper, editor, The Book of the Craft of Dying and Other Early English Tracts Concerning Death […], London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 107:
  That is: the waymenting of death hath umbelapped me, and the sorrows of hell have environed me.
  Modernized from an early-14th-century text.
- 1944, [anonymous], edited by Phyllis Hodgson, The Cloud of Unknowing and the Book of Privy Counselling […] (Original Series; 218), London: […] [F]or the Early English Text Society by Henry Milford, Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 195:
  [T]hou shalt find but a dark image and a painful of thine own soul […] umbelapped with black stinking clothes of sin […] a body of sin and a body of death […]
  Modernized from a late-14th-century text.

Alternative forms

umbelappe (obsolete)

Related terms

belap
lap

Translations

to enshroud, to envelop; to surround — see envelop,‎ surround

References

^ “umbelappen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “umb(e)-, pref.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “lappen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “um-, pref.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “bilappen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “bi-, pref.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “lap(pe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “† umbelap, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020.

[1] “umbelappen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[2] “umb(e)-, pref.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[3] “lappen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[4] “um-, pref.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[5] “bilappen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[6] “bi-, pref.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[7] “lap(pe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[8] “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[9] “† umbelap, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020.

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