The Names of the ‘Pearl’ in the Old High German Glosses and Glossaries

Abstract

The essay will provide a scrutiny of the words merigrioz and perala occurring in the Old High German glosses to render the Latin words for ‘pearl’, i.e. unio and margarita, with the purpose of mapping the distribution and the contexts of use of the OHG words. The analysis will contribute to trace the origin of the German word for ‘pearl’, starting from the earliest stage of the language and – from a perspective of language contact – which takes into account the Latin counterparts of these OHG glosses.