Bæddel And Bædling

and are Old English (Anglo-Saxon) terms theorised to refer to non-normative sexual or gender categories. They occur in only five medieval glossaries and penitentials (guides for religious penance). Scholars debate their exact meanings (and their distinction, if any), but both are linked to effeminacy and adultery. appears in one glossary, where it glosses "hermaphrodite" and a "man of both sexes", while glosses an "effeminate" or "soft" person. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that may be related to the English adjective "bad"; scholars have proposed that the word may share a root with both and .

The Old English translation of the medieval penitential ''Paenitentiale Theodori'' distinguishes men from ; it describes men having sex with other men or with as separate offences, and states that must atone for having sex with other . The term has been variously conjectured to refer to people assigned male at birth who exhibited gender-nonconforming behaviour or took on a feminine social role, or to intersex people, and it is also suggested that it may have included people assigned female at birth who took on a masculine social role. Some scholars have associated the term with gender non-normative burials from the period, and have suggested that could represent a third gender outside the gender binary, or a form of gender nonconformity in Anglo-Saxon society. The 11th-century English Antwerp Glossary associates with the uniquely attested , seemingly denoting a woman with a phallus or one displaying masculine characteristics.

Definition

and are Old English terms referring to some category of gender, sex, or sexuality outside the norm of Anglo-Saxon England, although their precise meaning and scope are debated by scholars. The terms are quite obscure; is attested in a small number of sources, including two glossaries and two penitentials (guides for religious penance)—while is only attested from two entries in the 11th-century Antwerp Glossary. The linguist and etymologist Anatoly Liberman describes the terms as synonyms.

In the Antwerp Glossary is used to gloss two Latin phrases: () and (). These are the two extant glosses which use the word. The Antwerp Glossary associates with the otherwise unattested word , which glosses the word "hermaphrodite". literally means a (woman) with a (weapon); it seems, metaphorically, to mean a 'woman with a phallus' or displaying manly characteristics, along the lines of the common term (a male, ).

is probably derived from , either with the patronymic suffix or the diminutive patronymic suffix . It is used to gloss three different Latin words in the four extant sources, including and 'effeminate soft ones'. glosses a third word from the Harley Glossary, , which is difficult to interpret and possibly a reference to the Anatolian region of Caria. Caria is the location of the legendary spring Salmacis, with the supposed power of feminising and softening men. The putative reference to Anatolia in the glossary may also indicate a connection with eunuchs, who were commonly associated with the Byzantine Empire and the Orient more broadly. Like other glosses, the Cleopatra Glossaries (dating to the reign of Æthelstan, between 924 and 939) associate with effeminacy and softness.

The Old English translation of the penitential handbook ''Paenitentiale Theodori'' makes a distinction between men and , describing "sex with other men" and "sex with " as separate (although equal) offences for men. It states that who have sex with other must atone for ten winters, describing them as "soft like an adulteress"; a similar comparison with adultery is also applied to in the Antwerp Glossary. The penitential also specifies that both adults and children can be , setting aside different lengths of atonement for of different ages. The historian Jacob Bell theorises that the reference to a sexual relationship between two may refer to pederasty.

Analysis

While is associated with intersex people in the attested glosses, it also seems to connote effeminacy. is thought by scholars to denote some sort of gender nonconformity, sexual passivity, or possibly a third gender.

Although philologist Robert D. Fulk and historian David Clark note that may refer to a passive partner in gay sexual intercourse, the reference to having sex with each other complicates this as a strict definition. This association with softness may denote people assigned male at birth who took feminine social roles or feminine gender presentation. It is debated by scholars how and fitted into the Anglo-Saxon gender system. may be regarded as a third gender category outside of the usual bounds of manhood and womanhood, or as emasculated people who share a position of "non-manhood" with women and children when compared with "manly men". The term may have also referred to people assigned female at birth who took on masculine social roles, or (as could have) to intersex people. Fulk has associated the terms with gender non-normative burials from the Anglo-Saxon period, including male skeletons buried alongside female grave goods.

Etymology

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scholars such as Hall and Ferdinand Holthausen argued for an additional meaning of or for the Old English term 'to compel', from which was possibly derived. They cite a Latin gloss in the 12th-century Eadwine Psalter. However, the psalter gives unusual and erroneous glosses for some Latin terms, causing philologists such as (writing in 1954) to dismiss the alternate definition. Fulk, concurring with Meritt in 2004, derived from a hypothetical early Old English term , , mirroring the derivation of words for hermaphrodite in other Germanic languages, such as Danish . There are no known references to ' or from the Late Medieval period, but a 17th-century Arthurian ballad in Scots mentions a , a word which the scholar William Sayers identifies as " sodomite" in a 2019 paper. A dialectal word ''badling'' attested in Northern England for variously , , or , may descend from ', but could also be a later, independent derivation from ''bad'' and the suffix . The ''Dictionary of Old English'' gives no etymology for , tentatively defining it as an "effeminate man" or "homosexual".

Connection to ''bad''

The philologist Julius Zupitza theorised that the English word ''bad'' is derived from . James Murray, the first chief editor of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (OED), supported Zupitza's theory and included it in the dictionary's first edition in 1884. This etymology's inclusion in the OED led to widespread scholarly acceptance, although some philologists continued to contest it. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology'' more tentatively makes the connection, denoting it as only a possible etymology. The current, online edition of the ''OED'' (as of 2025) and the 1989 second edition of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' continue to state that is "perhaps related to" ''bad'', with the latter dismissing alternative etymologies from Celtic words as "out of the question", while also suggesting a possible origin from .

Sayers proposes a shared etymology of ''bad'', , and from linguist Xavier Delamarre's reconstructed Gaulish word ; this adjective could have been carried into Old English by the hypothetical form , which would connote physical and moral deficiency (characteristics perhaps associated by Old English speakers with the native British populations of the rest of the British Isles). Writing in 1988, the linguist Richard Coates also describes and as descended from a common ancestor with ''bad'', in the form of a hypothetical Old English possibly meaning or . Liberman, concurring with Coates on the etymological link to , states that was formed from ''bad''. While (root of "evil") was the standard word for "bad" during the Old English period, ''bad'' was established enough by the 13th century to become a common nickname (in the form ). The usage of ''bad'' as an adjective is attested from the Middle English period, with one example recorded in 1297.

See also

* Intersex people in history
* Homosexuality in medieval Europe
* Transgender history

Notes

Pronunciation notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

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Chapter 2

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Chapter 3

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{{Use dmy dates, date=May 2025

Archaic English words and phrases
Intersex history
Old English
Transgender history in the United Kingdom
Third gender
Anglo-Saxon society
Medieval LGBTQ history