þorp

Forms

þorp n (genitive þorps, plural þorp) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *þurpą (“village, farmstead”),^[1][2] the source of Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍀 (þaurp, “field, land under cultivation”), Old English þorp, Old Frisian thorp, Old Saxon thorp and Old High German dorf.^[3][4][2]

Its further origin is uncertain and disputed, as is its first meaning.^[5] Most scholars compare Oscan trííbúm (“house”), Latin trabs (“beam”), Lithuanian trobà (“house”) and Ancient Greek τέρεμνον (téremnon, “house, room”), which would make the first sense “house” or “timber house”.^[5][6][7] De Vries agrees that the Greek and Latin words for “beam” point to house-building, and takes the single farm as older than the village.^[3] Others start from “cleared land” or from “hill”, which Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon finds hard to reconcile with the senses on record.^[5]

Cleasby and Vigfússon took the first sense to be “crowd”, with Latin turba (“crowd”) and þyrpast (“to throng”),^[8] and Fritzner also compared turba.^[9] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks this unlikely, and takes the sense “crowd” as grown from “cluster of houses”.^[5] Hellquist explains it the same way.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota dates the word first in AM 677 4to, of 1200–1225, with the forms Þorp and þorpsins.^[10] It is also in the Icelandic Homily Book, among the oldest Icelandic manuscripts, as porp and þorpit,^[11] where Fritzner matches it with Latin villa “farm” in Matthew 22:5.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Iceland and Norway the word named a farm or a group of farm buildings,^[12][13] while for foreign lands it is the usual word for a village.^[13] Cleasby and Vigfússon note that it is rarely used of a single farm.^[8] In the translated literature it renders Latin villa, vicus and castrum.^[9] The poetry also has the senses “mound, hillock” and “grave mound”.^[14] The sense “crowd, group” is found in prose and verse.^[12][15][14]

In the Swedish and Danish laws the cognate torp is a croft or new settlement.^[16] Modern Icelandic þorp means a small trading village or a cluster of farm buildings,^[5] and Swedish torp a small tenant farm.^[6] Norse settlers took the word to Normandy, where it survives in place-names such as Le Torp.^[3]

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – Þorp and þorpsins in AM 677 4to.^[10]
• 1225–1250 – þorpen and þorpom in DG 8 II.^[17]
• 1270–1280 – þorp in AM 243 bα fol.^[18]
• 1320–1350 – þorp and þorpinu in Egils saga in AM 132 fol.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. a farm, a group of farm buildings, also an isolated farm.^[13][12][20]
2. a village or hamlet, especially in foreign lands.^[13][8]
3. (poetic) a mound or hillock; a grave mound.^[14][21]
4. a crowd, group, throng.^[12][15][9]

Word family

• þorpari

Descendants

• Icelandic þorp^[1]
• Faroese torpur^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk torp^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål torp^[1]
• Swedish torp^[1]
• Danish torp^[1]

Related words

• þyrpast
• þrep
• þref

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 617
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 367
5. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. þorp
6. ^ a b c Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. torp
7. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. torp
8. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 742
9. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. þorp
10. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
11. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 383
12. ^ a b c d Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 779
13. ^ a b c d Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. þorp
14. ^ a b c Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 643
15. ^ 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. þorp
16. ^ A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. þorp
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 243 bα fol
19. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
20. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 479
21. ^ Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1860), Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, Hafniæ: Societas regia antiquariorum septentrionalium, p. 915