Etymology of the words network, net, and work

© 2004 Keith Briggs

network

This word is rather strange - what exactly is a network? Obviously, a work or construction reminiscent of a net, but when was the word first used in this form? Although the two component words are from common Germanic stock, the juxtaposition network seems to be a uniquely English coinage, later imitated by the Germans with Netzwerk. However, we must not forget the well-known Latin term opus reticulatum, a type of brickwork with the bricks placed at π/4 to the horizontal, so that the pattern of mortar lines resembles a net. Since this term means literally `net work', perhaps it is the prototype of the English word? The earliest occurrence in print of English network is in the Geneva bible of 1560 (the 1599 edition seems to have changed the spelling to network):

Spenser wrote in his poem Muiopotmos (1590):

According to the OED, the word is recorded in 1658 referring to reticulate structures in animals and plants. From 1839 it is used to refer to rivers and canals, and from 1869 to railways. In 1883 a distribution network of electrical cables is first referred to, and in 1914 a wireless broadcasting network.

What about the two component words? Net is the more interesting word.

net

This word is first recorded in English in the writings of King Ælfréd, in his translation of Boethius from about the year 888. It was also used in Old English for a spider's web. Here are the complete nett and nette entries from the Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Note that some of the æ characters should have macrons, but these cannot be represented in html, so I just left them off. The additions [in blue] are my own attempts at translation.

Net has many cognates in Germanic languages and a probable one in Latin. The Germanic words are of neuter gender (except for nót which is feminine); the Latin word is feminine. Note that the normal Latin word for a net is rete, although there may have also been a Vulgar Latin word *tragina for a dragnet.

language word Gothic nati Old English net(t), netti Middle English net Modern English net Modern Dutch net Old High German nezzi Middle High German netze Modern High German Netz Old Frisian nette Old Saxon netti Old Norse net (netja v.), nót Modern Icelandic net Modern Swedish nät Latin nassa

The Gothic word occurs exactly seven times in the bible. It takes the form natja in the dative. Because Gothic is the earliest record of Germanic (from about 350), it is worth looking at all these occurrences:

The Latin word meant a creel or wicker fish-basket. It was used by Pliny (in the ablative plural nassis `with nets') in book 9 of his Natural History:

Nassa might be derived from a root nad-. Some people think that this might be related to the word nodus, a knot. Others relate it to the verb necto, `I weave' (which seems to be not related to the German nähen, `to sew').

work

The component work is another widespread Germanic word. It has a cognate in Greek εργον.

sources

Bosworth, Joseph: (Northcote Toller, T. ed.) An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Dictionary, Supplement and Addenda Oxford University Press, 1st ed. n.d., reprinted 1983, 1966, 1972. [Abbreviations: Wrt. Voc. i: T. Wright, A volume of vocabularies, 1857. Quoted by page and number of gloss. Wrt. Voc. ii: T. Wright, A second volume of vocabularies, 1873. Quoted by page and line. Ælfc. Gr: Ælfric's Grammar. Ps. Spl.: Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum vetus. Lk. Skt.: The gospel according to St. Luke. Mt. Kmbl.: The gospel according to St. Matthew in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian versions. ed. J. M. Kemble. Jn. Skt.: The gospel according to St. John. Som.: Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum, by E. Somner, Oxford 1659. Coll. Monast. Th.: Colloquium ad pueros linguae Latinae locutione exercendos ad Ælfrico compilatum. Homl. Th.: The homilies of Ælfric. Wülck. Gl.: Anglo-Saxon and Old English vocabularies, by Thomas Wright, edited by R. P. Wülcker, London 1884. Cd. Th.: Cædmon's metrical paraphrase, by B. Thorpe, London 1832.]