út

Forms

út adv (comparative útarr, superlative útarst, later yzt)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *ūt (“out”),^[3][4] which continues Proto-Indo-European *úd, its vowel lengthened because the word was a monosyllable.^[4] Its cognates are Gothic 𐌿𐍄 (ut), Old English ūt, Old Frisian ūt, Old Saxon ūt and Old High German ūz.^[4][5] Outside Germanic it is compared with Ancient Greek ὕστερος (hústeros, “later”) and Latin ūsque (“all the way”).^[6][7]

Beside it stood a form *uz, continued in ór (“out of”).^[7][4] From the adverb were formed útan “from outside”, úti “outside” and útar “farther out”.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rundata reads ut on the Proto-Norse stone N KJ71, which it dates to 375/400–560/570 after Imer, in an inscription whose sense is not clear.^[8] In the Viking Age it is common on Swedish runestones, as on Sö 85: Hann endaðist út í Grikkjum “he died out among the Greeks”.^[9][10] IcePaHC dates its first manuscript record to 1150, in the Icelandic Homily Book,^[11] and Menota's earliest is the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 B, of 1150–1250.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The adverb expresses movement outward, the opposite of inn: out of a room or house, and out of doors.^[13][1] Seen from land it meant seaward or toward the outer part of a district.^[14][2] In the sagas út is said of sailing from Norway to Iceland, the opposite of útan, and then of other distant lands, as in fara út til Jórsala “to go out to Jerusalem”.^[1][15] Of time it means “throughout, to the end” (út jól “all through Yule”).^[1]

It continues as Icelandic út and Faroese út, Norwegian Nynorsk ut, Swedish ut and Danish ud.^[6][7] In the West Germanic languages the word also became a preposition and displaced the counterparts of ór.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 375/400–560/570 – Proto-Norse ut on the stone N KJ71, in Rundata's reading, by Imer's dating.^[8]
• 1150 – út in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[11]
• 1150–1250 – út in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 B.^[12]
• 1200–1225 – út and ut in the manuscripts AM 619 4to and AM 677 4to.^[18][19]

Meanings

Adverb

1. out, outward, towards the outer side.^[15][1]
2. out of the house, out of doors.^[13]
3. seaward, out to sea; in the outer part of a district.^[2][14]
4. from Norway to Iceland; abroad, to distant lands.^[15][1]
5. of time: throughout, to the end.^[15][20]
6. with verbs: out, as in brenna út “to burn out” and bjóða út liði “to call out troops”.^[15]

Word family

• útan
• úti
• útar
• ytri
• ýta
• útkváma

Descendants

• Icelandic út^[3]
• Faroese út^[3]
• Norwegian Bokmål ut^[3]
• Norwegian Nynorsk ut^[3]
• Swedish ut^[3]
• Danish ud^[3]

Related words

• ór
• inn

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 669
2. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 685
3. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 562
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 437
6. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. út
7. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 636
8. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ71
9. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Sö 85
10. ^ Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
11. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
12. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 B
13. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. út
14. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 585
15. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. út
16. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. ut
17. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. ud
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
19. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
20. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 503