manþeof

Old English edit

Equivalent to mann (“person”) +‎ þēof (“thief”). Compare Icelandic mannræningi, which is formed similarly.

manþēof m

The word for "to kidnap" is the verb forstelan (“to steal”) used with a noun denoting a person (Sunu mīn, īeðre is þæt man wīf forstele þonne hē hīwiġe = "My son, it's easier to kidnap a woman than to marry one"), or generically with the noun mann (Hwæt ġif iċ menn forstele for þām ānum þe iċ wille frīend ġewyrċan? = "What if I only kidnap [literally "steal people"] because I want to make friends?"). This usage and manþēof imply that the word for kidnapping was probably *manþīefþu (lit. “person theft”), though such a noun is unattested. Compare Icelandic ræna mann and mannrán.

It is likely that a kidnapper was simply called a "thief" when used with a noun or pronoun denoting the person kidnapped: Hēo spǣtte hire þēofe on þæt nebb ("She spat in her kidnapper's [lit. "her thief's"] face"). So also with *manþīefþu, if it existed: Ġīet ǣne hē þōhte ymb his þīefþe, hū hē losian meahte ("Once again he thought about his kidnapping [lit. "his theft"], and how he could escape"). This is how forstelan is used in surviving texts, as well as the analogous words mansliht (“murder”) and manslaga (“murderer”), which literally mean "person-killing" and "person-killer." In a statement such as "he is a murderer," manslaga was used in full, while in the phrase "his/her murderer, murderer of someone," slaga was used.

Declension of manþeof (strong a-stem)

Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “MANÞĒOF”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[1], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.