þar

Forms

þar adv^[1] Older þær, the form of Old Norwegian and Old Swedish.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Norse ᚦᚨᚱ (þar),^[4] from Proto-Germanic *þar (“there”).^[5] The adverb is found across Germanic: Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐍂 (þar), Old English þǣr, Old Frisian thēr, Old Saxon thār and Old High German dār.^[5][6]

Kroonen and Orel explain it as formed from the pronominal stem of þat, Proto-Indo-European *to-, with a locative suffix *-r.^[5][6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon compares the same suffix in hér and hvar.^[2] Beside *þar Germanic had a form with long *ē, behind the older Norse and Old Swedish ⟨þær⟩ and Old English þǣr.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Proto-Norse the adverb is read in the inscription of the Amla stone, ...-iz haiwidaz þar “... buried there”, which Rundata dates to 160–560/570 after Imer.^[7] In Old Norse proper Peterson lists it on the Sparlösa stone, of the 800s, in a hard passage that Rundata renders as asking the reader to interpret the runes there.^[8][9] A clearer case is the Viking Age Uppland stone Ulfr ok Þormundr ok Gamall láta reisa þessa steina þar eptir fǫður sinn “Ulfr, Þormundr and Gamall had these stones raised there in memory of their father”.^[10][8]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is local, “there, in that place”; it also means “thither”, and figuratively “at that point, in that case”.^[1][11] With er or sem it introduces a clause, “where”, then “since, seeing that” and “whereas”.^[1][12] With a preposition it forms adverbs such as þar af “thereof” and þar til “until”.^[12] In the Edda it can stand for a pronoun.^[13][14]

The word continues as Icelandic þar,^[2] while Swedish där goes back to the form with long vowel.^[3]

Timeline

• 160–560/570 – Proto-Norse þar on the Amla stone, by Imer's dating.^[7]
• 800s – þar on the Sparlösa stone.^[9][8]
• 1150 – þar in the First Grammatical Treatise, by IcePaHC's dating.^[15]
• 1160–1250 – þar in the Norwegian runic inscription N 49.^[16]
• 1200–1225 – Þar and þar in AM 677 4to and AM 619 4to.^[17][18]

Meanings

Adverb

1. there, in that place.^[1][19]
2. thither, to that place.^[1][11]
3. at that point, in that case.^[1][12]
4. þar er, þar sem: where; whereas, since.^[1][20]

Word family

• þarna

Descendants

• Icelandic þar^[4]
• Faroese har^[4]
• Norwegian Nynorsk der^[4]
• Norwegian Bokmål der^[4]
• Swedish där^[4]
• Danish der^[4]

Related words

• þat
• þaðan
• þaðra
• hér
• hvar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. þar
2. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. þar
3. ^ a b c Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. där
4. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 534
6. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 416
7. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ84
8. ^ a b c Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
9. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Vg 119
10. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. U 207
11. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 765
12. ^ a b c Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 472
13. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 636
14. ^ Neckel, Gustav (1927), Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius, vol. 2: Kommentierendes Glossar, Heidelberg, p. 207
15. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
16. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 49
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
19. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 730
20. ^ Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. þar