þræll

Forms

þræll m (genitive þræls, plural þrælar) (strong a-stem)^[1] Old Icelandic þrǽll and þrell beside þræll in AM 677 4to.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *þrahilaz (“runner, servant”),^[1][3][4] with Old High German drigil (“servant”) as its only certain cognate.^[5][6]

It is usually set with Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (þragjan, “to run”) and Old English þrǣgan (“to run”), with grammatical change, so that a slave would first have been a “runner”, an errand boy;^[7][8][9] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon traces the root to Proto-Indo-European *trek- (“to run”), comparing Serbo-Croatian trčati (“to run”).^[9] de Vries doubts that a slave would be named as a runner rather than as one who does hard work, and reports Jóhannesson's root “to drag along the ground”, that of Latin trahō (“to draw, drag”), which Wiktionary follows as Proto-Indo-European *trāgʰ-.^[6][1]

An older derivation meaning “the one compelled”, belonging to þryngva (“to press”), is rejected by Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, and de Vries notes that it does not fit Middle Irish tráill, the loan into Irish.^[9][6] Hellquist calls the origin disputed and obscure.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's first dated manuscripts with the word are the Norwegian AM 619 4to and the Icelandic AM 677 4to, both of 1200–1225, with þræll, þræla and þrǽlar.^[10][2] IcePaHC dates its use in the Icelandic Homily Book to 1150.^[11][12] A rune-stick from Norway, N A104, which Menota dates only to 1100–1500, lists þræls vansæla “the thrall's misery” among the riddles it poses.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

In the laws a þræll is an unfree man owned as property, with fixed rules for his sale and for the compensation, þrælsgjǫld, when one was killed.^[15][16] Poetry uses it of God's servants, the clergy and the faithful, and of the devil's.^[17][18] The word became a term of abuse, a mean fellow, a scoundrel, and in later Icelandic a cruel one.^[16][19]

It continues as Icelandic þræll, Faroese trælur, Norwegian Nynorsk træl, Swedish träl and Danish træl.^[6][9] It was borrowed into late Old English as þrǣl, the source of English thrall, into Middle Low German as drelle, and into Middle Irish.^{[6][9][20][21]} Cox doubts that Scottish Gaelic tràill comes straight from Norse rather than from English.^[22]

Timeline

• 1150 – þræll and þræla in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating of the text.^[11]
• 1200–1225 – þræll and þrælom in the Norwegian AM 619 4to;^[10][2] þrǽll in the Icelandic AM 677 4to.^[10][2]
• 1225–1250 – þræll in the Norwegian manuscript DG 8 II.^[23]

Meanings

Noun

1. a thrall, slave, an unfree servant.^[19][24][15]
2. (Christian, poetic) a servant (of God, or of the devil).^[17][18]
3. (figurative) a mean fellow, wretch, scoundrel.^[19][16]

Word family

• þræla
• þrælka
• þrælsligr
• þrælsgjǫld
• þrælsefni
• þrælkona

Descendants

• Icelandic þræll^[1]
• Faroese trælur^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk træl^[1]
• Old Swedish þræl^[1]
• Swedish träl^[1]
• Old Danish thræl^[1]
• Danish træl^[1]
• Old English þrǣl (→ English thrall)^[20][6]
• Middle Low German drelle^[9]
• Middle Irish tráill^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. þræll
4. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 424
5. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. col. 776
6. ^ a b c d e f g de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 625
7. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. träl
8. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. træl
9. ^ a b c d e f Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. þræll
10. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
11. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
12. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 386
13. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N A104
14. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. A 104
15. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 747
16. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 747
17. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 649
18. ^ a b Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1860), Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, Hafniæ: Societas regia antiquariorum septentrionalium, p. 918
19. ^ a b c Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. þræll
20. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
21. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
22. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. tràill
23. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
24. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 785