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South and north: the linguistic mysteries of the buss

Katrin Thier
p. 379-382

Résumés

Compte tenu de la grande variété des noms des types de navires aux xiie et xiiie siècles, qui sont bien plus nombreux que les attes­tations archéologiques contemporaines, il s’agit ici d’une tentative de contribuer à une étude plus large des types de navires en repérant les témoignages fournis par un mot particulier, buss, qui était utilisé aussi bien dans le nord que dans le sud de l’Europe à cette époque.

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Texte intégral

I am grateful to my colleagues at the OED, especially Ruth Arstall, Inge Milfull, Sam Schad, and Nicolay Yakovlev, and also to Tressy Arts and Simon Hopkins for their help with Arabic.

1Buss is one of a number of new words that appear in the 12th and 13th centuries against a background of increased sea traffic between southern and northern Europe, which led to innovation and technological exchange. However, while it is now well docu­mented as a type of North Sea fishing boat, its geo­graphical origin and early history are far from clear.

  • 1 For a more detailed discussion of my methodology, compare Thier 2006.
  • 2 For the purposes of this paper, I will use buss or “this word” to refer to attested word forms in (...)
  • 3 On the overview graphic, these changes are marked up in blue and orange, respectively; according t (...)

2The following is an attempt to approach this problem by treating the word as a type of artefact with particular features, which can be dated and mapped in the absence of phy­sical evidence1. One such feature is pronunciation: many spellings suggest that the word for buss in a particular language2 was pronounced with /ts/ in the middle, others suggest /s/. We know that /ts/ developed into /s/ in some languages, but the reverse does not usually happen, so /ts/ was probably original. However, it is sometimes difficult to tell the diffe­rence, as not all letters (like c and z) were used consistently3. Grammatical gender is also of interest: while the word is usually feminine, some languages also have unexpected masculine forms.

1. Evidence

  • 4  Earliest in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1052 (ASC MS C); the compound also appears in Latin and (...)

3The very earliest evidence appears to be the short-lived compound butse-carl (buss-man), which is unique to England and was either formed in English or locally in a Scandinavian language. The compound first appears in a manuscript of the late 11th century4, so the simple word must already have existed in one of these languages.

  • 5 As buzo, translating Latin paro ‘ship suitable for pirates’, in a passage based on Isidore of Sevi (...)
  • 6  In Hebrew letters as bwṣʾ/bwṣś, translating Hebrew biṣit ‘kind of ship’ in a commentary on the Tal (...)
  • 7 I use ‘Saracens’ to refer to the fictional enemy of medieval romances, to distinguish them from hi (...)
  • 8 Especially stories set in the period of Charlemagne (e.g. Rolandslied cited in MWB).

4There are also very early examples in German (SuH 216.63, 11th/12th century)5, and Judaeo-French (Rashbam6, 12th century); both in academic contexts and from inland areas, suggesting that the word was already known beyond seafaring circles. It also appears in some 12th-century German and French romances, mostly in encounters with the “Saracens”7 of Spain in a fictionalised past8.

  • 9 Hence later English buss for a fishing boat (1471; OED3 at BUSS n./1 sense 2).
  • 10 (toll due for a) buza adducens recens allecbuza bringing fresh herring”, cited in ONW at būsa.
  • 11 The bulk of surviving Old Norse (Icelandic and Norwegian) evidence dates from the 13th century and (...)

5On the continental North Sea coast the word is often associated with fishing from an early date, and now survives denoting a fishing boat in Dutch and Low German9. The earliest evidence from this region is in an 1163 Latin document from Flanders10; Low German forms appear in the 14th century and have a variety of distinctive forms, reflecting both types of pronunciation, and some odd masculine-looking forms (with -en; e.g. butzen: Paulsen 2016, p. 841 and p. 889). Such variation may have various reasons, both external and internal and may (but need not!) go back to a time when the word was forming. Old Norse búza first appears in the 12th century, which is early for that language11.

  • 12 The same Norwegian vessels are just called “ships” in the Old Norse saga recounting the same event (...)
  • 13 Decem buccias magnas: these ships made rendezvous with Richard’s north European fleet in Messina, (...)

6Some of the earliest Mediterranean evidence comes from a Latin book on the First Crusade (1095-9), compiled soon afterwards in northern Europe and apparently based on eyewitness accounts. This mentions English ships “which they call buza”, 60 buzae of the Norwegian king, and also (once) buzae in the Muslim fleet (AA X.i.718, XI.xxvi.798, XI.xxvii.800)12. In 1190, Richard I (Lionheart) hired a Mediterranean fleet in Marseilles, which included “ten large busses” (RoH 114)13. By the early 13th century the word had been borrowed into Arabic as busa (e.g. BaD 123-6; cf. Kindermann 1934, p. 7-9).

  • 14 Compare examples for both in NJal at *bucius.

7In Italy and the western Mediterranean the word appears in local texts as early as the mid-12th century. Here the spoken languages were still similar to Latin, which was used in writing, adapting new words to look Latin. Unusually, in this group the word is often (but not always) masculine14. This variation may imply that the word was still quite new to the local speakers.

8The accompanying graphic lays out likely interrelations between these words, based on the evidence of attested forms, which point towards spoken Latin and Low German as possible points of origin.

Fig. 1: Overview graphic of the word buss

Fig. 1: Overview graphic of the word buss

2. Historical points

  • 15 For a summary of the saga evidence, see ONP at búza.

9The word is first attested in 11th century England, and is used explicitly for English and Norwegian ships in a 12th-century Crusade account. In Old Norse, the word seems well esta­blished by the 13th century, and is found in sagas about people with no Mediterranean connections15. These points may suggest a north European origin.

10However, in the western Mediterranean the word is already used in local sources and for local ships by the mid-12th century, and in later Crusade accounts of the same time it often refers to Mediterranean ships; in romances it is associated with “Saracens”. The earliest Scandinavian evidence is in a 12th-century poem listing types of native and foreign, including Mediterranean, ships (SkH 863).

11Major political contact between northern and southern Europe began in the 11th century, when speakers of Norman French (with its Scandinavian elements) held power in parts of southern Italy, even before the Crusades brought large numbers of northern ships into the Mediterranean.

3. The ships

  • 16 The main Mediterranean finds are earlier and from the east.

12As archaeological evidence from this period is very limited16, images are also rare, and neither refers to named ship types, the written accounts from both regions may provide further evidence on the kinds of ships called buss.

  • 17 The dimensions are: circa 30 m by circa 4.25 m: L/B ratio circa 7; the customer is from Nice.
  • 18 E.g. Latin permaxima (IP ii.28.181), Old Norse mikill (OH 122.347).

13A 13th-century Old Norse saga equates a búza with a langskip (with 80 crew; OH 122.347) and another reports a 35-bench búzuskip “buss-ship” (HH 59.155). Similarly, some western Mediterranean sources describe bucii with up to 80 oars (AnnGen1204), and an 1190 contract from Liguria provides the dimensions of a large, but narrow merchant ship (Ciciliot 2012, p. 263)17. In Western and Arabic crusade sources, busses typically carry cargo or large numbers of men. Some very early sources refer to smaller craft (AA IX.ix.648), but by circa 1200 busses are most commonly described as “(very) large”, etc18.

  • 19 It is unclear if this is a description based on the informant’s report, or the north European auth (...)

14There is little information on sails. A 12th-century passage mentions tall masts on a ship in the Mediterranean, which might indicate a northern square sail (AA X.vii.724)19, while the “triple spread of sail” mentioned in the 13th century recalls multi-masted Mediterranean vessels (RoD 93). However, neither (north European) author was there.

4. Inconclusive conclusions

15The word belongs to an age of innovation, and may refer to either the form or function of a kind of ship, or both. It is likely to originate either in Low German (if from the north) or in spoken Latin (if from the south). It seems to have spread fast, which would happen more easily if it referred primarily to function, as physical features typically vary locally. An emphasis on function may also be confirmed by the contra­dictions in the few physical descriptions. As innovation settles and form types crystallise, some innovative terms can become redundant; a function-based word may be more vulnerable to this process. This could explain both the term’s widespread loss, and its localised survival in one particular context.

Bibliography

Primary sources

16AA: Edgington S. B. (ed.) 2007 Albert of Aachen Historia Ierosolimitana, Oxford, Clarendon Press [cited by chapter, section, and page].

17AnnGen1204: Annals of Genoa anno 1204, in Pertz G. H. (ed.) 1863 Ogerius Panis, Annales Ianuenses (1197-1219), Hannover, Hahn, Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS 18, p. 121-122.

18ASC MS C: O’Brien O’Keefe, K. 2001 (ed.) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, vol. 5: MS C, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer [cited by year].

19BaD (Bahāʼ al-Dīn ibn Shaddād): Richards D. S. 2001 (ed.) The rare and excellent history of Saladin, or, al-Nawādir al-Sulṭāniyya wa’l-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya, Aldershot, Ashgate [cited by page in translation].

20HH: Haralds saga Harðráða, in Jónsson F. 1901 (ed.) Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson, Vol 3, København [cited by chapter and page]; for a translation cf. A. Finlay, A. Faulkner 2015 (eds) Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, vol. 3, London, Viking Society for Northern Research (as Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar).

21IP: Stubbs W. 1864 (ed.) Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, Rerum Britannicarum London, Longman, Medii Aevi Scriptores (Rolls Series) 38, vol. 1 [cited by book, chapter, and page]; for a translation cf. Nicholson H. J. 1997 (ed.) The Chronicle of the Third Crusade, a translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, Aldershot, Ashgate.

22OH: Johnsen O. A., Helgason J. 1941 (eds) Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga, 2 vols, Oslo, Brøgger. [cited by chapter and page]; a slightly later version is translated in A. Finlay, A. Faulkner 2014 (eds) Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, vol. 2, London, Viking Society for Northern Research.

23RoD: Ralph of Diceto, Ymagines Historiarum, in Stubbs W. 1876 (ed.) Radulfi de Diceto Decani Lundoniensis Opera Historica, London, Longman, Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores (Rolls Series) 68, vol. 2, p. 3-176 [cited by page].

24RoH: [Roger of Howden] E Gestis Henrici II et Ricardi I Regum Angliae, in Liebermann F., Pauli R. 1885 (eds) Ex rerum Anglicarum Scriptoribus Saeculi XII et XIII, Hannover, Hahn, Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS 27, p. 81-132 [cited by page].

25SkH: Gurevich E. 2017 Skipa heiti, in Gade K. E., Marold E. (eds) Poetry from Treatises on Poetics, Part 2: Anonymous Þulur. Turnhout, Brepols, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3, p. 861-876. [cited by page].

26SJ: Saga Sigurðar Jórsalafara, in Unger C. R. 1867 (ed.) Morkinskinna, Christiania (Olso), Bentzen, p. 156–198 [cited by page]; a slightly later version is translated in Finlay A., Faulkner A. 2015 (eds) Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, vol. 3, London, Viking Society for Northern Research (as Magnússonar saga).

27SuH: Hildebrandt R. 1974-1995 (ed.), Summarium Heinrici, 2 vols, Berlin, De Gruyter.

Dictionary entries

28FEW: bûza, in von Wartburg W. 1968 Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Band XV/2 ([Germanismen] *bu-*faihiða), Basel, Zbinden, p. 47. (https://apps.atilf.fr/​lecteurFEW/​lire/​152/​47)

29MWB:ʒe swM, in Gärtner K. et al. 2006 (eds) Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Trier, Universität Trier (Online only, http://www.mhdwb-online.de/​wb.php?buchstabe=B&portion=4360)

30NJal: *bucius, in Mollat M. 1972 (ed.) Nouveau glossaire nautique d’Augustin Jal (B), Paris, Mouton, p. 164.

31OED3: buss n./1 and buscarl n. (both 2012), in Simpson J. et al. 2000, Oxford English Dictionary Online, Oxford, Oxford University Press (Online only, https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/25256 and https://www.oed.com/​view/​Entry/​25173)

32ONP: búza, in Knirk J. E. et al. 2000, Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog, vol. 2 (ban-da) København, Den arnamagnæanske commission, co. 1006-1007 (https://onp.ku.dk/​onp/​#o12510)

33ONW: būsa, in Schoonheim T. H. 2009 (ed.) Oudnederlands Woordenboek, Leiden, Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie. (Online only, http://gtb.inl.nl/​iWDB/​search?actie=article&wdb
=ONW&id=ID2219)

References

34Ciciliot F.
2012 “Les chantiers navals en Ligurie du Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne (xiie-xive siècles),” Cahiers de la Méditerranée 84, p. 259-271.

35IPA
1999 Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

36Kindermann H.
1934 “Schiff im Arabischen, Zwickau.

37Paulsen R.
2016 Schiffahrt, Hanse und Europa im Mittelalter, Köln, Böhlau.

38Thier K.
2006 “Sea-lanes of communication: Language as a tool for nautical archaeology,” in L. Blue, F. Hocker, A. Englert (eds), Connected by the Sea, Proceeding of the Tenth Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Roskilde 2003, Oxford, Oxbow Books, p. 210-216.

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Notes

1 For a more detailed discussion of my methodology, compare Thier 2006.

2 For the purposes of this paper, I will use buss or “this word” to refer to attested word forms in any language, regarding the differences between languages as individual typological realisations of the general concept.

3 On the overview graphic, these changes are marked up in blue and orange, respectively; according to linguistic convention, letters surrounded by slashes show pronunciations (IPA 1999, p. 27).

4  Earliest in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1052 (ASC MS C); the compound also appears in Latin and Anglo-Norman French in the early 12th cent (later instances quote or copy earlier sources). Compare the discussion of these in OED3 at BUSCARL n.

5 As buzo, translating Latin paro ‘ship suitable for pirates’, in a passage based on Isidore of Seville’s major 7th century reference work.

6  In Hebrew letters as bwṣʾ/bwṣś, translating Hebrew biṣit ‘kind of ship’ in a commentary on the Talmud. Attributed to Rashbam’s grandfather Rashi (11th century) in FEW at bûza; I am grateful to to Mark Kiwitt, then of the Dictionnaire Étymologique de l’Ancien Français for the correction (personal communication 2011).

7 I use ‘Saracens’ to refer to the fictional enemy of medieval romances, to distinguish them from historical Muslim peoples.

8 Especially stories set in the period of Charlemagne (e.g. Rolandslied cited in MWB).

9 Hence later English buss for a fishing boat (1471; OED3 at BUSS n./1 sense 2).

10 (toll due for a) buza adducens recens allecbuza bringing fresh herring”, cited in ONW at būsa.

11 The bulk of surviving Old Norse (Icelandic and Norwegian) evidence dates from the 13th century and later.

12 The same Norwegian vessels are just called “ships” in the Old Norse saga recounting the same event (SJ 157).

13 Decem buccias magnas: these ships made rendezvous with Richard’s north European fleet in Messina, but up to that point, descriptions of the hired fleet refer to Mediterranean ships only; the author was present.

14 Compare examples for both in NJal at *bucius.

15 For a summary of the saga evidence, see ONP at búza.

16 The main Mediterranean finds are earlier and from the east.

17 The dimensions are: circa 30 m by circa 4.25 m: L/B ratio circa 7; the customer is from Nice.

18 E.g. Latin permaxima (IP ii.28.181), Old Norse mikill (OH 122.347).

19 It is unclear if this is a description based on the informant’s report, or the north European author’s own figure of speech.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Fig. 1: Overview graphic of the word buss
URL http://journals.openedition.org/archaeonautica/docannexe/image/3549/img-1.jpg
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Katrin Thier, « South and north: the linguistic mysteries of the buss »Archaeonautica, 21 | 2021, 379-382.

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Katrin Thier, « South and north: the linguistic mysteries of the buss »Archaeonautica [En ligne], 21 | 2021, mis en ligne le 01 juillet 2022, consulté le 16 avril 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/archaeonautica/3549 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/archaeonautica.3549

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Katrin Thier

Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, UK

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