† sefteadj.

Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian sēft (West Frisian sêft , seaft , †safft ), Old Dutch senifte , Old High German semfti (Middle High German senfte , semfte , German †senft ), and (without i-mutation) Old Frisian sacht- (in compounds, rare), Old Dutch sanfte (Middle Dutch sachte , saechte , socht , softe , Dutch zacht , †zaecht ; > West Frisian sacht ), Middle Low German safte , sachte ( > German sacht in the narrower sense ‘gentle, quiet’), Old High German samft (Middle High German sanft , sanfte , German sanft ), all in a range of senses ‘gentle, mild, quiet, untroubled, easy, comfortable, pleasant’; probably < the same Indo-European base as same adj., with a dental root extension (also seen in Vedic Sanskrit santya, form of address for the god Agni).The adjective probably originally belonged to the u -stems (hence *samþu- ) and went over to the ja -stem declension in West Germanic (compare discussion at merry adv.). The resulting difference between a mutated stem vowel in the adjective and an unmutated one in the adverb (see soft adv.) was apparently levelled out both in English and German by extending the unmutated vowel of the adverb to the adjective (see soft adj.). The converse development is theoretically possible, i.e. that an adjectival stem form not subject to i-mutation survived in West Germanic and that a mutated stem vowel was levelled from the comparative and superlative forms (which in both the adjective and the adverb show regular i-mutation of the stem vowel caused by the suffix (compare the adverbial comparative form sēft at soft adv. and discussion at -er suffix³)); however, this seems inherently less likely. For other cases in Old English where the adjective apparently develops an unmutated stem form after the adverb, compare eath adj., soot adj., and other words listed at merry adv. The two apparent attestations of the word in late Middle English are isolated in their respective sources and thus may conceivably reflect transmission errors (or misreadings) for softe , soft soft adj. rather than implying continuity.