Old English had a word hād that meant "condition, state, character, nature, form". We don't have this word anymore, but the Old Englishers also used this word in a lot of compounds, some of which are still with us.
For example, they added hād to a number of ecclesiastical terms:
- cirichād: order of the church ("churchhood")
- munuchād: monastic state ("monkhood")
- biscophād: bishopric ("bishophood")
One that we still have is prēosthad (priesthood).[1]
They used hād in a lot of terms that described the condition, state, character, nature, or form of people:
- werhād: manhood
- wīfhād: womanhood
- cildhād: childhood
- geogoþhād: youth ("youthhood")
- ealdhād: old age ("oldhood")
- cnihthād: boyhood, youth, (male) virginity[2]
- hagosteadhād: bachelorhood
- mægdenhād: (female) virginity, that is, maidenhood
You can see how hād was a useful term to cover concepts like these:
- camphād: contest, war ("warhood")
- gīslhād: being a hostage ("hostagehood")
- þēowhād: service ("servicehoood")
- druncenhād: drunkness ("drunkenhood")
A term that made me laugh was the term wǣpnedhād, which literally means "manhood". This (definitely attested) term was used to refer to a dude's "male sex", a usage we still see today.
There are lots of -hood terms that aren't attested till later in English-language history, though they're terms that plausibly could have been in everyday Saxon use: brotherhood, sisterhood, neighborhood ("nearby-living-hood").
Fortunately for us, the fun didn't really end with the Anglo-Saxons; we've been using -hood to make "condition, state" nouns ever since. We welded together French roots with -hood to create terms like apprenticehood, infanthood, puppyhood, and orphanhood.
And we can still do it today — I bet you had no trouble understanding my made-up definitions like "oldhood" and "hostagehood" and "drunkenhood". The next time you need a noun that's about a condition or state, feel free to avail yourself of the venerable -hood suffix.
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