Updated
19 Mar 2000
Font
colour key:
dark
blue
= non-Scandinavian Germanic word; dark
red
= loanword into English; green
= Old Germanic dialect; purple
= Modern Scandinavian word.
Abbreviations:
ODanish = Old
Danish; OE = Old English; ON = Old Norse; OSwedish
= Old Swedish.
Introduction
This
small article aims to present and give the etymologies of the chief
loans into early modern and modern English from the Scandinavian
languages. The many Nordic loans into Old and Middle English have been
treated in a separate article.
The
primary sources discussing these loans have been the brief discussions
appearing in Serjeantson,
Speake and Kisbye (see booklist below) and
the proposed loans have been checked in etymological dictionaries. Most
important and reliable of these have been Barnhart and Hoad, while Skeat has only been
consulted as a last resort. Some of the derivations given by Barnhart
from Scandinavian words which are rare, curious or dialectal do not appear in the
standard dictionaries for those languages, but they are included due to
the absence of other information.
As
might be expected, many of the loans from the Scandinavian languages in
the modern period are terms relating to more or less specifically
Scandinavian objects, concepts or creatures, for which English had no
appropriate term. As will be seen, a number of these (RUNE,
KRAKEN,
SKALD,
BESERK,
SAGA,
TROLL,
JOTUN,
RAGNARÖK)
were borrowed during the period in which knowledge of Old Norse
literature (and later Norwegian folk tales) was first being acquired in
England and for which our language was lacking equivalent terms. These
loans therefore stem mainly from ON or from direct ON descendants in
early modern Icelandic. Loans for more or less peculiarly Nordic
phenomena are, for example, AUK,
LOON,
RUNE
(our native Anglo-Saxon equivalent had long since died in English),
KRAKEN,
SKALD,
BESERK,
GEYSER,
SAGA,
STORTHING,
TROLL,
SMØRREBRØD,
SMORGASBORD.
Others
relate to creatures, geographical features and weather patterns which
are characteristic of Scandinavian or other northern climes and for
which (in some cases), English had the option of, but not necessarily
the need, to borrow, e.g. VOE,
JOKUL,
FLOE,
MAELSTROM,
SKERRY,
WALRUS,
NARWHAL,
SQUALL (violent
gust of wind),
ICEBERG,
ICEBLINK,
SKUA,
FJELD,
PIPKRAKE,
TJÆLE.
Still
others pertain to activities or professions in which Scandinavians traditonally excel or are
renowned for, e.g. YAW,
SKOAL,
SKI,
SLALOM,
KLISTER,
SKI-JORING.
The marine animals mentioned in the previous paragraph can also be
considered as being relevant here, owing to the Scandinavians’ mastery
of sailing, shipping and fishing and their extensive knowledge of the
sea.
What
remains is a number of apparently random loans which seem to have
little common thematic ground. They do, however, to some extent reflect
Scandinavian (especially Swedish) advances in technology and democracy,
as well as a robost
common cultural heritage and a distinctive cuisine, e.g. ANGSTROM,
MOPED,
OMBUDSMAN,
PALSTAVE,
TRAP,
TUNGSTEN,
HALLING,
GJETOST,
GRAVADLAX,
LANGELEIK,
ROSEMALING,
SPRINGAR,
POLSKA,
GLÖGG,
RYA.
1:
Scandinavian
(source
language undetermined)
1500s:
BATTEN
(1500s) "feed abundantly, grow fat, thrive" from a
Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian batne
"improve, grow better", ON batna
"improve, thrive"; ROWAN
(1500s) the mountain ash, from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian raun,
rogn,
Swedish rönn,
ON reynir
"rowan tree"; RUG
(1551) originally "coarse fabric", cf. Norwegian dialect rugga
"coarse covering", Swedish rugg
"coarse hair", rugge
"tuft" and ON rögg
"shaggy tuft"; modern meaning from 1591 (Barnhart); SCRAG
(1542) "skinny person or animal", cf. Swedish skragge,
Norwegian skrakl
"tall
thin person", Icelandic skröggur
"old man"; SCRUB
(1545) "rub hard" perhaps from a Scandinavian source, cf. Danish and
Norwegian skrubbe
but Middle Dutch or Middle Low German may be the origin; SCUD
(1532) "run or move swiftly" from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian skudda
"thrust", Swedish skudda
"shake", ON skjóta
"push, shove"; SCUFFLE
(1579) is probably the frequentive
form of scuff,
cf. Swedish skuffa
"push,
shove", ON skúfa
"push
aside"; SIMPER
(1563) probably a loan from Scandinavian, cf. Norwegian semper
"fine, smart", Danish dialectal semper
"affected, coy" (Barnhart) but an alternative derivation is from 1500s
Dutch semper
"affected"; SKIT
(Freeborn claims 1572; others give 1700s) "a brief satirical theatrical
sketch" probably from a Scandinavian source; related to SKITTER
below and therefore to Icelandic skjóta
"shoot";
SNAG
(1577-87) "stump of a tree", with the meaning "projection" in 1586,
from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian dialectal snag
"stump, spike"; SNUG
(1595) from a Scandinavian source, cf. Swedish snygg
"neat, trim", ON snøggr
"short haired"; WAD
(1540) probably a shortened form of 1392 wadmal
"soft padding material" from ON vaðmál
"measure of cloth"; YAW
(1546) probably from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON jaga,
Norwegian jage
"hunt,
drive, fly".
1600s:
LOON
a guillemot (1634) from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian lom,
ON lómr
"loon";
NUDGE
(1675) from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian nugge,
nyggje
"nudge,
shove", Icelandic nugga
"rub"; OAF
(1638 with this spelling) from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON álfr
"elf,
fairy"; RUNE
(1685; runic
is recorded from 1662) the word was introduced from Danish rune
or Icelandic rún
deriving from ON rún
"secret or magical lore; magical symbol; written character, rune"
(native OE rûn
did not survive the Middle English period); SKERRY
(1600s; mainly Scots) "small rocky island, reef", from a Scandinavian
source, cf. Norwegian skjær,
skjer,
ON sker
"skerry"; SKEWER
(1679; earlier 1411: skuer)
probably from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON skífa
"cut, slice", Swedish skiva
"slice"; SKITTLES
(1634) a plural form of a Scandinavian loan, cf. Norwegian and Swedish skyttel
"shuttle"; SMUT
(with the meaning of the modern noun, 1698) perhaps a Scandinavian
source, cf. Swedish smuts,
Danish smuds
"dirt, mud, filth"; SQUALL
"cry loudly" (c.1631) from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON skvala
"shout,
bawl"; VOE
(1600s) "small bay or narrow creek" ultimately ON vágr
"creek,
bay"; KEG
(1632), a variant of earlier kag
(1452) from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON kaggi
"keg, cask", Swedish kagge
"keg,
cask",
Norwegian kagg
"keg, barrel".
1700s:
COSY
(1700s) origin uncertain but probably from a Scandinavian source, cf.
Norwegian koselig
"comfortable"; JOKUL
(1700s) probably from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian jøkel,
jøkul
"glacier", ON jökull
"ice, glacier"; KRAKEN
(1700s) a giant mythical sea-monster thought to live off the Norwegian
coast, from a Scandinavian source, probably Norwegian kraken;
MUGGY
(1731) probably derived from ME muggen
(1390) "drizzle" from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian Nynorsk mugg
"drizzle", ON mugga
"drizzle, mist"; SQUALL
(1719)
"violent
gust of wind", from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian skval
"rippling,
splashing sound", Swedish skvala
"gush,
pour forth"; MAELSTROM
first
recorded as the proper name (1701) of a whirlpool off the Lototen Islands, with the generalised meaning of a large
and violent
whirlpool becoming current about 1841, from Danish Malstrøm,
originally from Dutch maelstrom
(now maalstroom).
1800s:
AQUAVIT
(1870-99)
an alcoholic spirit distilled from potatoes, from mainland akvavit
"water
of life",
a Scandinavianisation
of a Latin expression;
BESERK
(1851; earlier 1822 berserker)
erroneously adapted into English from Scandinavian, cf. ON beserkr
"bear sark"; FLOE
(1817) probably from Norwegian Nynorsk flo
"layer, stratum", from ON fló
"layer"; NAG
(vb.) (1825) probably from a Scandinavian source, cf. ON gnadda
"mumur, grumble", nagga
"complain", Norwegian nage
"gnaw,
rankle"; SKITTER
(1845) from earlier 1721 skite
"dart, run about", from a Scandinavian source, cf. Icelandic skjóta
"shoot";
VOLE
(1805; earlier vole-mouse)
from a Scandinavian source, cf. Norwegian voll
<
*vollmus
"field
mouse" - the source of the English word presumably originally compounds
either Norwegian voll
"grassy field, meadow" or Icelandic völlur
"plain, field", both from ON völlr
"plain".
2.
Old Norse
JOTUN
(1830-69) a member of the race of giants from Old Scandinavian
mythology, as preserved in Old Icelandic poetry and sagas - loaned from
ON jötunn
"giant"
(cf. Norwegian Bokmål jotun,
jutul,
Nynorsk jøtul
"giant" and cognate OE eoten
"giant"); RAGNARÖK,
RAGNAROK
(1870-99) the defeat of the gods and men at the final battle by the
forces of evil, as described in Old
Scandinavian mythology and there mainly in the Old Icelandic poem Völuspá, from
ON ragnarök,
later ragnarøkkr
(perhaps via modern Icelandic ragnarök)
from ON ragna
"of
the gods" + rök
"doom, fate" or røkkr
"twilight" (cf. German Götterdämmerung,
Swedish gudaskymning
"twilight of the gods"); SAGA
(1709: an Old Norse prose narrative from Iceland or Norway, 1830-69: a
narrative regarded as having the traditional qualities of these; a
story of heroic exploit) from ON saga
"something said, tale, story", loaned during the time the ON sagas were
becoming known in England (but perhaps the identical word in modern
Icelandic, saga,
is the source of the English loan); SKALD,
SCALD
(1763) an itinerant or court oral poet, a bard, especially in ancient
Scandinavia, loaned from ON skáld,
perhaps mediated via modern Icelandic skáld
(cf. Norwegian skald,
Danish
skjald).
3: Icelandic
EIDER
(1743) via German Eider
or Dutch eider
from Icelandic æðar(fugl)
"eider-fowl", genitive of ON æðr;
GEYSER
(1780)
originally
the proper name of a geyser in Haukadal,
Árnessýsla,
derived from
Icelandic
geysa
"gush forth" < ON geysa
"gush"; SANDUR
(1870-99)
a broad, flat or gently sloping plain of glacial outwash, from
Icelandic sandur
"sand, sandy ground, sea-shore".
4:
Faroese
SKUA
(1678) apparently a naturalistion
of Faroese skúgvur,
cognate with ON skúfr
"seagull".
5: Norwegian
AUK
(1674) a short-winged, heavy-bodied Atlantic seabird, from Norwegian alke,
cf. Icelandic álka
"auk";
FIORD,
FJORD
(1674)
from Norwegian fiord,
fjord,
descended from ON fjörðr
"firth, inlet"; FJELD
(1830-69) a high barren rocky plateau, especially in Scandinavia, from
Dano-Norwegian fjeld
"mountain" descended from ON fjall
"mountain, fell"; GJETOST
(1900-29) a cheese made from goat’s milk, from Norwegian Riksmål gjetost
(gjet
"goat" + ost
"cheese"); HALLING
(1830-69) a Norwegian country dance in duple rhythm (from Hallingdal,
a valley in southern Norway); KLISTER
(1930-69) a wax applied before a ski-run to aid the glide of the skiis on the snow, from
Norwegian klister
soft ski-wax (literally "paste"); KRILL
(1907) a luminous shrimp, from Norwegian krill
(perhaps
related to Icelandic kríli
"little
thing"); LANGELEIK
(1900-29)
an early Norwegian stringed instrument resembling the zither, from
Norwegian langeleik
(lang
"long"
+ leik
"play");
LEMMING
(1713) from Norwegian lemen,
descended from ON læmingi,
læmingr
"lemming"; NARWHAL
(1658 Narh
whale,
1747 Narwhale)
probably from Norwegian narhval
(or perhaps Danish narhval
or Swedish narval),
derived from Icelandic náhvalur,
ON náhvalr
"corpse-whale" (from its whitish colour);
RORQUAL
(1827) a whale of the finback family, via French from Norwegian røyrkval,
cf. ON reyðarhvalr
"rorqual" (literally
"red-whale"); ROSEMALING
(1930-69) the art of painting wooden objects with flower motifs, from
Norwegian rosemaling
"rose-painting" (rose
"rose" + maling
"painting"); SKI
(1755) Norwegian ski,
from ON skíð
"snowshoe, stick of wood"; SKI-JORING
(1900-29) a winter sport in which the skiier
is towed by a horse or vehicle, from Norwegian skikjøring
(literally "ski-driving"); SLALOM
(1921) from Norwegian slalåm
a skiing race, literally "sloping track" (Nynorsk sla
"sloping" + låm
"track" (made by skiis));
SPRINGAR
(1930-69)
a
piece of music for a Norwegian country dance in 3/4 time, from
Norwegian springar
< verb springe
"bound,
jump, leap";
STORTHING,
STORTING
(1834) the legislative assembly of Norway, from Norwegian storting
(stor
"large" + ting
"assembly"), ultimately from ON stórr
+ þing
("great
assembly");
TROLL
(1616) probably from Norwegian troll
"troll, monster, goblin" (cf. Swedish troll,
Danish trold)
ultimately from ON troll
"giant, demon".
6: Danish
ANGST
(1859, but not in popular use until c.1956) "fear, anxiety" from Danish
angst,
earlier angest
"fear,
anxiety, dread",
a loan from Middle Low German
[German
Angst,
however, may be the source of the English word];
BAT
(mammal) (1575) is a replacement for earlier ME bakke,
both being loans from Scandinavian, probably Danish from ODanish bakkæ
or perhaps OSwedish backa
"bat"; ICEBERG
(1774) from Danish isbjerg
[or from
Dutch
ijsberg];
ICEBLINK
"the
gleam from distant ice structures" from Danish isblink
(is
"ice"+
blink
"gleam, flash");
LANDNAM
(1930-69)
the clearance of woodland for agricultural purposes or evidence of this
act, from Danish landnåm
"taking
or occupation of land" (apparently based on ON
landnám
or Icelandic landnám
"the taking of land" (usually in reference to the settlement of Iceland)
from land
"land"
+ nám
"taking,
occupation" (< ON nema
"take, take possession of"; cf. German nehmen));
LANDRACE
(1930-69)
a breed of large white pig originally bred in Denmark, from Danish landrace
(land
"national-"
+ race
"breed"); MOR
(1930-69) a layer of acidic humus formed in cool moist conditions where
decompostion is
slow (such as in coniferous forests), from Danish mor
"humus"; PALSTAVE,
PALSTAFF
(1851; archeological usage) a kind of celt
(usually bronze) fitting into a split wooden handle instead of a
socket, from Danish pålstav,
apparently a Danish loan and adaption of ON pál-stafr,
a
kind of heavy missle (from
páll
"spade, hoe" + stafr
"staff"); SKOAL
(c.1600, Scots only) "cheers!" from early modern Danish skaal
(now skål,
literally "bowl") "toast" - probably from King James' visit to Denmark
in 1589; SMØRREBRØD
(1900-29)
from
Danish smørrebrød,
literally "bread and butter" an open sandwich, hors d'oeuvres served on
slices of bread.
7: Swedish
ANGSTROM
(1951, altered from earlier 1906: Ängström)
from Swedish ångström,
a unit of measurement named after the Swedish physicist A.J. Ängström; DESMAN
(1700s) a mole-like amphibious mammal, from Swedish desman-råtta
literally
"musk-rat";
FARTLEK
(1930-69) "interval training": a method of training used by middle and
long distance runners alternating fast and slow work in cross-country
runs, from Swedish fartlek
(fart
"speed" + lek
"play"); GAUNTLET
(1646 in the form gantlope)
punishment of running between two rows of armed men ("running the
gauntlet") from Swedish gatlopp
(gata
"track" + lopp
"course") probably imported by English troops fighting in the Thirty
Years War, later confused with gauntlet
from another source; GLÖGG,
GLUGG
(1900-29)
a spiced Scandinavian winter alcoholic drink, from Swedish glögg
(cf. Norwegian gløgg);
GRAVADLAX,
GRAVLAX/GRAVLAKS
(1930-69) raw salmon cured with salt and herbs, from Swedish gravadlax,
gravlax
raw spiced salmon (grav
"grave, trench" + lax
"salmon"; the spicing process was originally undertaken in a trench in
the ground); MOPED
(1956) from Swedish moped
formed from mo(tor)
+ ped(al);
OMBUDSMAN
(1959) from Swedish ombudsman
"commissioner" (cf. ON umboðsmaðr
"commissionary,
steward"); PIPKRAKE
(1930-69) an ice-needle, needle ice, from Swedish pipkrake
(pip
"pipe" + (dialectal) krake
"frozen ground"); POLSKA
(1870-99) a processional Scandinavian folk-dance of Polish origin,
usually in 3/4 time, from Swedish polsk
"Polish"; RUTABAGA
(1799)
the Swedish turnip,
from
dialectal Swedish rotabagge
(rota
"root + bagge
"bag"); RYA
(1930-69) a Scandinavian variety of knotted pile rug, from Swedish rya
"long-pile rug" (originally rya
rug);
SMORGASBORD
(1893) from Swedish smörgåsbord,
a cold buffet consisting of various hors d'oeuvres (literally smörgås
"bread and butter" + bord
"table"); TJÆLE,
TÆLE
(1900-29)
a frozen surface at the base of the active layer in a periglacial environment, from
Swedish tjäle
"ice
in frozen ground, ground frost";
TRAP
(1700s) a fine grained igneous rock, from Swedish trappa
"stair"; TUNGSTEN
(1770) from Swedish tungsten
"heavy stone" (tung
"heavy" + sten
"stone"); VARVE
(1900-29)
a band of sediment deposited in glacial lakes, consisting of a light
layer and a dark layer deposited at different seasons, from Swedish varv
"layer;
turn"; WALRUS
(1655) [via
Dutch
walrus,
walros
"whale-horse"] probably from Swedish, valross
cf. ON rosmhvalr,
hrosshvalr
"walrus" (literally "horse-whale").
*Sources:
Barnhart,
Robert, K.: Chambers Dictionary of English Etymology,
Chambers Harrap
Publishers, Edinburgh, 1999;
Collins
English Dictionary
(Millennium Edition), HarperCollins Publishers, Glasgow, 1998;
Freeborn,
Dennis: From Old English to Standard English,
2nd revised and enlarged edition. London:
Macmillan Press Ltd., 1998;
Haugen,
Einar: Norsk-engelsk
Ordbok,
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget,
1993;
Heggstad,
Leiv, Hødnebø, Finn & Simensen, Erik: Norrøn
Ordbok,
Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo, 1997;
Hoad,
T.F. (ed.): The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English
Etymology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996;
Kisbye, T.: Vikingerne i
England: sproglige spor, København: Akademisk
Forlag, 1988.
Nielsen, Niels Åge: Dansk
Etymologisk Ordbog, København: Gyldendal, 1989;
Norsteds stora svensk-engelska ordbok, Norstedts Förlag AB, Stockholm, 1993;
Serjeantson,
M.S. A History of Foreign Words in English,
London, 1935. (Ch.4, "The Scandinavian Element");
Skeat,
Walter W.: The Concise Dictionary of English
Etymology, Wordsworth Reference, Herts., 1993;
Speake,
J. (ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and
Phrases, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998;
Vinterberg, H. & Bodelsen, C.A.: Dansk-engelsk
ordbog, (Gyldendals store røde ordbøger),
Gyldendals, København, 1990;
Zoëga,
Geir T.: A
Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, London: Oxford
University Press, 1961.
©
Edward Smith 2011
