báðir

Forms

báðir m pl (feminine báðar, neuter bæði, genitive beggja)^[1] Viking Age runic baþiR, baþa, baþaR and baþi on Swedish stones.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *bai (“both”),^[3] the Germanic word seen in Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹 (bai), genitive 𐌱𐌰𐌳𐌳𐌾𐌴 (baddje), Old English bēgen and Old High German beide.^[4] Kroonen explains that the inherited dual endings were replaced by the ordinary plural endings of the pronouns.^[4] Outside Germanic it is related to Latin ambō and Lithuanian abu.^[5][3]

The Norse form adds the plural pronoun þeir: Köbler and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon reconstruct Proto-Norse *bai-þai-ʀ, and Noreen derives it from *bá-þaiʀ, comparing Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹 (bai) 𐌸𐌰𐌹 (þai).^[6][5][7] The genitive beggja keeps the old form, matching the Gothic genitive.^[5][8] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon suggests that the /i/ of the neuter bæði comes from þessi.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rundata dates the Rök stone to the ninth century; its text has baþaR somon, normalised báðar saman “both together”, of two war-booties.^[9] In manuscripts ONP's first dated record is from the Icelandic Homily Book, 1150: Briost þile es samtǽnger báþa vegge. í eíno huse. merker drotten várn “The breast-panelling that joins both walls in one house signifies our Lord”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word means “both” of two persons or things, and ONP sets out the phrases báðir saman “both together”, á báðar hendr “on all sides” and taka báðum hǫndum við e-m “to receive someone with open arms”.^[10] The neuter bæði became the correlative bæði … ok “both … and”.^[11] Cleasby and Vigfússon call the forms báði and báðra of fourteenth-century manuscripts Norwegian.^[12] It is among the 500 most frequent words in de Leeuw van Weenen's count.^[13]

It continues as Icelandic báðir, Swedish båda and Danish både.^[5] One of Etymonline's explanations of English both derives it from the Norse word.^[14]

Timeline

• 800s – baþaR “both” on the Rök stone, by Rundata's dating.^[9]
• 1150 – báþa vegge “both walls” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[10]
• 1175 – the genitive begia.^[10]
• 1200 – báðir saman “both together”.^[10]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. both, the one and the other.^[10][1][11]

Word family

• bæði

Descendants

• Icelandic báðir^[3]
• Faroese báðir^[3]
• Norwegian Bokmål både^[3]
• Norwegian Nynorsk både^[3]
• Swedish både^[3]
• Danish både^[3]

Related words

• þeir
• tveir

References

1. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. báðir
2. ^ Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 46
5. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. báðir
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. báðir
7. ^ Noreen, Adolf (1923), Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik, 4th ed., Halle, p. § 152
8. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 30
9. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 136
10. ^ a b c d e f Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. báðir
11. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 37
12. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 54
13. ^ de Leeuw van Weenen, Andrea (1999), Grundwortschatz Altisländisch, Leiden, p. 11
14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. both