bók

bók¹ book

Forms

bók f (genitive bókar or bǿkr, plural bǿkr) (strong consonant stem)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the book is inherited from Proto-Germanic *bōks (“tablet of beechwood, book”).^[2][1] The same noun is Gothic 𐌱𐍉𐌺𐌰 (bōka), plural “letter, book”, Old Saxon bōk (“writing tablet”), Old Frisian bōk, Old English bōc and Old High German buoh.^[3][4]

Most etymologists take it to be the same word as bók² “beech”.^[5][4][6] Cleasby and Vigfússon thought the identity certain and noted that bókstafr properly means a beech twig;^[5] Falk and Torp, Torp and Jóhannesson explain the book as a tablet of beechwood with runes carved in it, used at first in the plural.^[4][3][7] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon likewise thinks of thin beech boards to scratch on, the book being named after its material as Ancient Greek βίβλος (bíblos) and Latin liber (“book; bast”) were.^[6]

The Norse sense “book”, however, is held to come from Old English. Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks it probably came from bōc with Christianity and clerical learning,^[6] Jóhannesson calls it a semantic loan from the Old English word,^[7] and de Vries describes the inherited word as reshaped in meaning by it.^[8] De Vries adds that a tablet of beechwood suits the word badly, since it names the foreign written book; he reports H. Kuhn's link with Proto-Germanic *baukna- (compare bákn), through “mark, sign” to “written letter”, and H. Rosenfeld's view of an early borrowing for the beechwood wax tablets used for letters.^[8] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks the link with ⟨bákn⟩ unlikely.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record in Menota is the plural bǿkr in the fragment NRA norr fragm 81 A, dated 1150–1250.^[9] ONP's citations of 1200 already show the sense “book” itself: En þa es líþr líf þetta ... eige þarf þa bóc at lesa “But when this life passes ... then there is no need to read the book”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the book as an object the word came to name a literary work, a volume of a longer work and, often in the plural, the older written authorities;^[10] heilǫg bók was Holy Scripture.^[10] The book on which oaths were sworn, the Bible or the Gospels, gave phrases such as vinna eið at bók “to swear an oath on the book”.^[10][11] The book also stood for learning and for Latin: kenna á bók “to teach to read”, nema á bók “to study”, setja til bǿkr “to put to study”, kunna á bók “to know Latin”.^[10][12] In Norway the book was above all the law code: Hertzberg's Norwegian laws use it of the lǫgbók,^[13] and Zoëga names the codes lögbók and Jónsbók.^[12] In the legal texts the word is more frequent than ONP's genre table expects.^[10]

In a few Eddic poems bók is an embroidered or figured cloth, a bed cover: bǿkr þínar inar bláhvítu “your blue-white covers”.^[14][15] Cleasby and Vigfússon took this for the earliest Scandinavian sense of the word,^[5] and de Vries lists it under the book word.^[8] Finnur Jónsson explains it from the thin beechwood slats used in weaving,^[16] while Fischer counts it among the meanings borrowed in the Eddic poems.^[17]

The word continues as Icelandic bók, Faroese bók, Norwegian bok, Swedish bok and Danish bog.^[6][4]

Timeline

• 1150–1250 – the plural bǿkr in the fragment NRA norr fragm 81 A.^[9]
• 1150 – bók and bækur in IcePaHC's First Grammar text, by its dating.^[18]
• 1200 – bóc “book” and the senses “work” and “written authority” in ONP's citations of 1200.^[10]
• 1200 – the book used in oath-taking, in ONP's citation of 1200.^[10]
• 1200–1225 – bók, bókinni and bókarinnar in the manuscript AM 677 4to.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. a book;^[10][12] útan bǿkr “by heart”, setja á bǿkr “to commit to writing”.^[10][12]
2. a literary work.^[10]
3. a volume, one book of a longer work.^[10]
4. (often plural) an older written work, an authority;^[10] heilǫg bók “Holy Scripture”.^[10]
5. (Christian, law) the holy book on which oaths are sworn, the Bible or the Gospels.^[10][12]
6. book-learning, study; the Latin language and its literature.^[10][12][11]
7. (law) a lawbook, law code.^[10][12]
8. (poetic) a cloth with figures woven or embroidered in it, a coverlet.^[12][20][14]

Word family

• bókstafr
• bókfell
• bóklærðr
• bókmál
• bókareiðr
• bókrúnar
• bókligr
• bóklist
• bóka
• lǫgbók

Descendants

• Icelandic bók^[6]
• Faroese bók^[6]
• Norwegian Nynorsk bok^[6]
• Swedish bok^[6]
• Danish bog^[6]

bók² beech

Forms

bók f (genitive bókar)^[5]

Etymology

The word for the beech is inherited from Proto-Germanic *bōkō (“beech”).^[1][2] It matches Old English bēce, Old Saxon bōk, Middle Low German bōke and Old High German buohha.^[8][21] Outside Germanic it answers to Latin fāgus (“beech”), which agrees in meaning, and to Ancient Greek φηγός (phēgós, “a kind of oak”).^[8][6] Pokorny's root is Proto-Indo-European *bʰāgós (“beech”).^[2]

De Vries and Hellquist mention the usual link with Ancient Greek φαγεῖν (phageîn, “to eat”), which would make it the tree with edible fruit.^[8][21] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon calls the further origin uncertain, as is which tree the word first named, and mentions a comparison with Kurdish and Russian names of the elm and the elder,^[6] which Hellquist thinks surely wrong.^[21] De Vries notes that the modern words Icelandic baukr (“box”) and Icelandic beyki (“beech”) point to a Germanic alternation of two vowel grades.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tree is rare in the record: Cleasby and Vigfússon explain that Iceland had no beeches, and that the collective beyki is the more frequent word.^[5] Bók “beech” stands in the þulur, the lists of poetic names.^[16][11] ONP labels the word poetic and has one dated citation, from a boundary description of 1312: j sundit vidr Haugin ok Bokena “into the sound by the mound and the beech”.^[10]

Timeline

• 1312 – Bokena in a boundary description cited by ONP under the poetic bók “beech”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (poetic) a beech, beech tree.^[12][16][10]

Word family

• beyki

Descendants

• Faroese bók^[8]
• Norwegian Nynorsk bøk^[8]
• Swedish bok^[21]
• Danish bøg^[21]