Talk:færbu

"færbu" = fær bú

The analysis added by Thriftunner in April 2018 is correct. There is no evidence to suggest this word exists apart from one mis-edited line quoted in Bosworth-Toller from Alfred's Metres of Boethius. It is clearly the word fær ‘going, journey, movement’ followed by the word bú ‘both’; the second Bosworth-Toller entry for færbu [here] even links to the entry for fær [here] , where you can see the correctly spaced version along with the prose paraphrase Thriftunner included in the example in I.1.1a. wuduweard (talk) 23:42, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

@Wuduweard: It was actually taken from here [[1]], which shows a separate entry for færbu [=colour] and the same use under the entry for bleoh, and also the occurrence you allude to above. The examples Habbaþ færbu ungelíce and mǽgwlitas and Hí habbaþ blioh and færbu ungelíce are similar but they are not exact. One contains Habbaþ færbu ungelíce and the other contains habbaþ blioh and færbu ungelíce. (mǣġwlitas (pl) = [appearances, forms]). Can you please explain (?) Leasnam (talk) 03:17, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

If we take Habbaþ fær bū ungelíce and mǽgwlitas it doesn't compute grammatically to me. "Have journey both different and appearances"...it would make more sense if rendered Habbaþ fær and mǽgwlitas bū ungelíce. Although word order is freer in OE, I don't think you can insert a pronoun/determiner and an adjective between the nouns in a multiple noun phrase, splitting them up like this, and have it still make sense...or can you (?) Leasnam (talk) 03:31, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

Bosworth-Toller is notorious for giving a minced or reordered version of a quote in order to better suit its use as an example of the headword. The "different" quotes are actually the same quote, given twice with varying levels of precision; note that they're both cited “Bt. Met. Fox 31, 7; Met. 31, 4” i.e. Samuel Fox’s 1835 edition of the Metres of Boethius, Metre 31, line 7 (of his edition), which is metrically Metre 31, line 4. You can see it in his edition here, where it’s printed without the space — I don’t have a copy of the original manuscript, but I imagine it was printed this way because there is no space in the manuscript.

The actual quote from Metres 31, lines 4a-6a, is: habbað blioh & fær bu ungelice / & mægwlitas manegra cynna / cuð & uncuð “[They (=creatures)] have color & movement both unalike, & forms of many kinds, known & unknown.”

It’s also worth noting the absence of any OE færbu (or an OE reflex at all) for PGm *farwō – it’s not in Kroonen (2013) or Orel (2003). wuduweard (talk) 10:37, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Ok, I'm good if this entry is deleted. Phonetically it really never made much sense to me anyway. Leasnam (talk) 17:43, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Another point I didn't even think to make: for metrical reasons they MUST be separate — the alliteration is on /b/ & the caesura is literally between the words fær & bú! wuduweard (talk) 18:12, 21 December 2022 (UTC)