-wintre

From Proto-West Germanic *-wintrī, from Proto-Germanic *-wintruz. Cognate with Old Norse -vetr and Gothic -𐍅𐌹𐌽𐍄𐍂𐌿𐍃 (-wintrus). Equivalent to winter +‎ -e. Compare the German suffix -jährig, of similar form and meaning.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwin.tre/

-wintre

1. years old
   • c. 893, King Alfred's Laws

     Tīenwintre cniht mæġ bēon þīefþe ġewita.

     A ten-year-old boy can be an accessory to a theft.

   • late 9th century, The Old English Martyrology

     Sanctus Iūstus wæs eahtawintre þā hē martyrdōm þrōwode for Criste.

     Saint Justus was eight years old when he became a martyr for Christ.

   • c. 1020, Wulfstan, King Cnut's second law code

     Wē willaþ þæt ǣlċ mann ofer twelfwintre selle þone āþ þæt hē nylle þēof bēon ne þēofes ġewita.

     We want everyone over twelve years old to give an oath that they will not be a thief or a thief's accomplice.

   • c. 935, King Æthelstan's sixth law code

     Ne slēa man nānne ġingran mann þonne fiftīenewinterne mann, būtan hē hine werian wille oþþe flēo and on hand gān nylle.

     No one should be executed who is younger than a fifteen-year-old, unless they resist arrest [lit. try to defend themselves] or try to escape and refuse to give themselves up.

   • late 9th century, translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans

     Hannibal ġecȳðde þone nīþ and þone hete þe hē beforan his fæder ġeswōr þā hē nigonwintre cniht wæs þæt hē nǣfre ne wurde Rōmāna frēond.

     Hannibal showed the hatred and the malice that he felt when he swore before his father as a nine-year-old boy that he would never become a friend of the Romans.

   • late 9th century, translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans

     Æfter þām hīe ġesetton tictātor þæt hē sċolde bēon hearra ofer þā consulas, sē wæs hāten Decius Iūnius. Hē næs būtan seofontīenewintre.

     After that, they chose a dictator to rule over the consuls, whose name was Decius Junius. He was only seventeen years old.

2. years lasting
   • late 9th century, translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans

     Dioclētiānus and Maximiānus bebudon ēhtnesse cristenra manna—Dioclētiānus ēastane and Maximiānus westane—and for þām bebode wurdon fela martyra on tīenwintrum fierste.

     Diocletian and Maximian ordered the persecution of Christians—Diocletian from the east and Maximian from the west—and because of that order there were many martyrs in a ten-year period.

• Often written as a separate word in modern transcriptions, but twiwintre (“two years old”) and þriwintre (“three years old”), with the prefix forms of "two" and "three," show that -wintre was a suffix.

• Middle English: -winter

• -nihte