Most scholars agree that, like many names in the Germanic languages, the
root of the name
Oisc is an Old English word
ōs, meaning '(non-Christian) god',
cognate with
Old Norse Áss (deriving from
Proto-Germanic ''''). to which later scholarship possibly adds the runic inscription on a shield boss dating from between 150 and 220 CE found on
Thorsberg moor in
Schleswig-Holstein which in 2015 Lisbeth M. Imer interpreted as a Roman-influenced maker's mark reading
aṇsgz h. In Insley's interpretation, in
Oisc the
ōs element is combined with a suffix which in Proto-Germanic took the form *, which in this context had a
diminutive function. The name was thus a
hypocoristic (nickname) form of longer
Germanic dithematic names beginning in
Ōs- such as
Ōswald and
Ōsrīc. Later in Old English, the vowel developed to , giving the spelling
Ēsc. Bernard Mees, however, has suggested that
Oisc and its cognates come from the Germanic root '''' found in, for example, the Old Norse verb ('to breathe'), combined with the suffix ; other adjectives formed with this suffix generally mean something like 'quick, lively, brave'.
Mis-spellings The name is also found in a couple of
West Saxon sources as
Æsc (along with the tribal name
Æscingas). Insley interprets these spellings as etymologically incorrect attempts by later Old English-speakers to update the then unfamiliar word
Oisc into their variety of the language, influenced by the familiar name-element
Æsc-. An early modern transcription of the early medieval manuscript London, British Library, Cotton Otho B. xi by
Laurence Nowell gives not the name
Oeric and
Oisc as found in Bede, but
ósric and
oese, but Insley concluded that these are merely inaccurate transcriptions. ==Portrayal in the early sources==