ausa

Forms

ausa (singular past indicative jós, plural past indicative jósu, josu, past participle ausinn) (strong)^[1] The present tense third person singular is eyss.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *ausaną (“to scoop, to draw a liquid”),^[1][4] a strong verb whose other continuations are Middle Low German ōsen (“to scoop”) and Middle High German ōsen.^[4][5][6] Old English had the derived noun Old English ēase (“cup, bowl”).^[5][7]

Outside Germanic it is compared with Ancient Greek ἐξαύω (exaúō, “to draw out”) and Latin hauriō (“to draw (water)”).^[6][5] Pokorny sets up a root *aus- “to draw water, to scoop”,^[8] and Wiktionary writes it Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“to scoop”).^[1] The Latin word is the difficulty: Hellquist doubts that its fixed ⟨h-⟩ can be reconciled with the Norse verb,^[9] and Orel derives it from an earlier *auriō.^[4] Orel compares instead αὔω (aúō, “to light a fire”), assuming a secondary change of meaning.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated record is from the Icelandic Homily Book of about 1200, in the story of the wedding at Cana: Auseþ ér up nu oc féoreþ arkitriclino “now draw it out and take it to the steward of the feast”.^[10] Menota's first dated manuscript is AM 677 4to, of 1200–1225.^[11]

Semantic evolution

ONP orders the senses from “to scoop up, draw” and “to bail (a boat)” to “to pour or sprinkle over”, “to throw or strew” and “to cover over”.^[10] Two set phrases come from the sense “sprinkle”: ausa moldu “to sprinkle with earth”, that is to bury,^[3] and ausa vatni “to sprinkle with water”, the rite in which a newborn child was given its name, which Cleasby and Vigfússon describe as a custom of the heathen period, found already in the Hávamál.^[12][10] The phrase ausa moldu í hǫfuð sér “to throw dust on one's head” is a sign of grief or submission.^[10] Figuratively one could ausa sauri á e-n “to pelt someone with dirt”, that is with abuse.^[13] Said of a horse the verb means “to kick out with the hind legs”, already in ONP's record of 1212.^[10][14]

The weak noun ausa “ladle” was made from the verb, as were ausker “bailer” and austr “bailing”.^[6] The noun is first dated by ONP in 1500, in the proverb Eigi er sopit, þó at í ausuna sé komit “it is not yet supped though it has come into the ladle”.^[10] De Vries reports that Sámi borrowed the noun.^[5]

The verb continues as Icelandic ausa, Faroese oysa, Swedish ösa and Danish øse;^[5][15] Hellquist derives the English dialect verb (h)owze “to bail” from the Norse.^[9]

Timeline

• 1200 – auseþ ér up “draw it out” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[10]
• 1200–1225 – ausa in AM 677 4to.^[11]
• 1212 – hestriɴ toc at frv́sa oc blasa oc ꜹsa “the horse began to snort and blow and kick”.^[10]
• 1250 – first record of the sense “to bail”.^[10]
• 1250–1300 – the participle ausinn in GKS 2365 4to.^[16]
• 1500 – the noun ausa “ladle” in a proverb.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. to scoop up, draw (a liquid) from something.^[10][14]
2. to bail (a ship or boat).^[10][3]
3. to pour or sprinkle (with the dative of the liquid); ausa barn vatni, to sprinkle a child with water when naming it.^[10][3]
4. to throw, strew, scatter;^[10] ausa moldu í hǫfuð sér, to throw dust on one's head.^[10]
5. to fill up, cover over;^[10][3] ausa e-n moldu, to bury someone.^[10][3]
6. (of a horse) to kick out with the hind legs.^[3][14]

Word family

• ausker
• austr
• hlandausa
• pottausa
• vatnsausa
• silfrausa

Descendants

• Icelandic ausa^[1]
• Faroese eysa^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk ausa^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål ause^[1]
• Old Swedish ø̄sa^[1]
• Swedish ösa^[1]
• Danish øse^[1]

Related words

• eysill

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 519 a 4to
3. ^ a b c d e f g Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ausa
4. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 30
5. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 21
6. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. ausa
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. ausa
9. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. ösa
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. ausa
11. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
12. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 34
13. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. ausa
14. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 35
15. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. öse
16. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. GKS 2365 4to