earliestattested

Earliestattested is a term used in historical linguistics, philology, and lexicography to denote the earliest known attestation of a word, form, name, or phenomenon in surviving texts. It serves as a dating anchor for the chronology of linguistic change and textual history. The label does not claim that the form originated at that time; it only identifies the earliest evidence that has been preserved and discovered.

In scholarly practice, earliest attestation is often distinguished from phrases like earliest known or first documented. An attestation refers to a specific appearance in a manuscript, inscription, or printed text, and the dating of that source is frequently approximate due to uncertainties in palaeography, manuscript provenance, or dating methods. The term is widely used in lexicography, etymology, and digital humanities as a metadata tag to organize and compare diachronic data.

Methodology involves identifying the form in a source, confirming its linguistic status, and dating the source through palaeographic analysis, codicology, or corroborating historical references. Researchers consider variant spellings, regional dialects, and possible loanwords, and they may revise the dating as new manuscripts or editions become available.

Limitations arise from reliance on surviving material, which may bias the record toward literate or monumental contexts. Attestations can reflect scribal practice, translation, or standardization rather than everyday speech. The absence of earlier attestation does not prove nonexistence.

In practice, earliestattested annotations help track diachronic change and guide reconstruction of historical forms, with sources and citations provided to verify dating and context.