neorxnawang

Old English

Alternative forms

• neorxenawang, neorxnawong, neorxnewong
• neirxnawong, nercsnawong, nerxnawong — Northumbrian

Etymology

From neorxna (an element of unknown provenance) + wang (“field”). Many attempts have been made to explain the etymology of neorxna, but little agreement has been reached; the available evidence probably does not permit a definite answer.

Selected explanations

• An early attempt at etymologising the first element of this word is Edward Lye's 18th-century derivation from an adjective *neorxen, from ne (“no”) +‎ weorc (“work”). However, neither the medial /s/ or the final /a/ can be explained without straining the bounds of formal plausibility. Additionally, one would expect weorc to be negated with un-, not ne; compare e.g. unweorclīċ (“not work-ready”).
• Roberts derives neorxna from *nēoryxena, the genitive plural of hypothetical *nēoryxe (literally “garden of the dead”), from nēo (“corpse”) +‎ ryxe, variant of rysċe (“rush”); connecting this to the "reeds and rushes" of Isaiah 35:7.
• Gostenfell instead considers it to contain a compound of eorcen (“shining”) +‎ stan (“stone”), with initial n- through metanalysis. However, this hypothesis would require a level of phonetic reduction rarely seen in Old English.
• A suggestion once "almost universally approved" connects nēo (“corpse”) and an unattested cognate of Gothic 𐍂𐍉𐌷𐍃𐌽𐍃 (rōhsns, “chamber”), this would form *nēorīehsn (literally “hall of the dead”), which could reduce to neorxen- without undue difficulty, but 𐍂𐍉𐌷𐍃𐌽𐍃 is entirely isolated within Germanic, making the supposition of an Old English cognate very risky.
• For discussion of the innumerable other proposed etymologies, see the references listed below.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈne͜orks.nɑˌwɑnɡ/, [ˈne͜orˠks.nɑˌwɑŋɡ]

Noun

neorxnawang m

1. Paradise.

Declension

Strong a-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	neorxnawang	neorxnawangas
accusative	neorxnawang	neorxnawangas
genitive	neorxnawanges	neorxnawanga
dative	neorxnawange	neorxnawangum