þekkja

Forms

þekkja weak verb (past tense þekkta, past participle þekktr; an older past tense þátti in poetry)^[1][2] Faulkes also gives the past tense þekði and the participle þekðr.^[3] Old Norwegian manuscripts write þecte,^[4] þæcti and þæckiaz.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *þankijaną (“to perceive, to think”),^[6] the verb Köbler writes *þankjan.^[7] The same verb is Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌲𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (þagkjan, “to think”), Old English þencan, Old Frisian thenza, Old Saxon thenkian and Old High German denken, all meaning “to think”.^[8][9][7]

Outside Germanic the only certain relative is Old Latin tongeō (“to know”), with an Oscan noun beside it, so the word is found only in Italic and Germanic.^[8] Köbler and Pokorny's dictionary put both under a root *tong-, *teng- “to think, to feel”.^[7][10] Wiktionary takes the Germanic verb to be a causative Proto-Indo-European *tong-éye-ti of Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think, perceive”).^[6]

Cleasby and Vigfússon note that Old Norse kept the sense “perceive, know” and never developed “think”, which entered later with the borrowed form þenkja.^[2] De Vries and Köbler list separately the sense “to make pleasant”, with a middle voice meaning “to be pleasing, to accept”, which belongs with the adjective þekkr “pleasant”;^[8][11] Zoëga and Fritzner treat these senses under one verb.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

IcePaHC finds the verb first in the Icelandic Homily Book, which it dates to 1150, in the forms þekkjum, þekkt and þekkjanda.^[13] Menota's earliest dated manuscript with it is the Norwegian AM 619 4to of 1200–1225, with the past tense þecte.^[4] The oldest sense is “to notice, to catch sight of”: in an Eddic poem þás bani Fáfnis borg of þátti “when Fáfnir's slayer caught sight of the stronghold”, with the old past tense.^[1][14]

Semantic evolution

The senses run from noticing with the senses to understanding and then to knowing and recognising a person or thing.^[1][12] Cleasby and Vigfússon describe “to perceive, espy” as obsolete in modern Icelandic, where “to know” is the sense left.^[2] In the poems the old past tense þátti is used of seeing something,^[15] and Finnur Jónsson lists in skaldic verse a verb þekkja “to chastise” and the middle þekkjask “to be content with”.^[16] The middle þekkjask “to accept, to be pleased with” is common in the sagas, as in Gunnsteinn þektist boð þat “Gunnsteinn accepted that offer”.^[12][17]

The verb continues as Icelandic þekkja “to know”, with the noun þekking “knowledge” made from it, and as Faroese tekkja and Norwegian Nynorsk tekkja.^[9][18]

Timeline

• 1150 – þekkjum, þekkt and þekkjanda in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[13]
• 1200–1225 – the past tense þecte in the Norwegian manuscript AM 619 4to.^[4]
• 1225–1250 – the old past tense þatta in DG 8 II.^[19]
• 1250–1300 – the middle þekkiazt “to accept” in Holm perg 6 fol.^[20]
• 1270–1290 – þekkja and þekkjask in AM 519 a 4to.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. to perceive, notice, catch sight of.^[1][22]
2. to comprehend, understand.^[1][12]
3. to know, recognize, tell apart from others.^[1][22]
4. to make something pleasing to someone.^[12][11]
5. (middle voice þekkjask) to accept, agree to; to please someone.^[1][3]

Word family

• þekking
• þekkiligr

Descendants

• Icelandic þekkja^[9]

Related words

• þekkr
• þakka
• þǫkk
• þokki
• þykkja

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. þekkja
2. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 733
3. ^ a b 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. þekkja
4. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
5. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 243 bα fol
6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 607
9. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. þekkja
10. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke, p. 1088
11. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. þekkja
12. ^ a b c d e Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. þekkja
13. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
14. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 1196
15. ^ Gering, Hugo (1915), Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda, 4th ed., Paderborn, p. 209
16. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 637
17. ^ Foote, P. G.; Quirk, R., eds. (1957), Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, London: Nelson / Viking Society (glossary), p. 124
18. ^ Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 968
19. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
20. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 6 fol
21. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 519 a 4to
22. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 768