búa

Forms

búa (strong)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *būaną (“to live, dwell”),^[2][1] a cognate of Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌿𐌰𐌽 (bauan), Old English būan, Old Saxon būan and Old High German būan (“to live, dwell; to build”).^[2][3] Kroonen explains the variation between “*bōan-” and “*būan-” in Germanic as an old ablauting present of Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂u-, the full grade giving “*bō-” and the zero grade “*bū-”.^[2] The root is that of Latin fuī (“I was”), Ancient Greek φύω (phúō, “to bring forth”) and Lithuanian būti (“to be”), meaning “to grow, come into being, be”.^[4][5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon suggests that the sense “to adorn, equip” may go back to a compound with “*bi-”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Viking Age runestones already use the past tense of “dwelling”: Þeir bjoggu báðir í Báristǫðum “they both lived in Báristaðir”.^[6] The first dated record is ONP's citation of 1192, in the sense “prepare”: þaɴ dág bio maria magdalena guþ. til graftar “that day Mary Magdalene prepared God for burial”.^[7] The sense “dwell” follows in a manuscript of about 1200: Sę́ler ero þeir drótteɴ er bua i húse þíno “blessed are they, Lord, who dwell in your house”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Lexicon Poeticum takes “to be” as the basic meaning, from which the others grew.^[8] ONP's commonest sense is “live, dwell”, often as the head of a household, followed by “prepare, make ready” and “live with (someone), lie with”; it also has “run a farm, keep house”, the use on board ship, and the opening formula of tales.^[7] The past participle búinn “ready, prepared” is used much as an adjective.^[7][9] In law the verb means “to be a householder”.^[10]

The reflexive búask “to make oneself ready” was borrowed into Middle English as busken, English busk.^[5][11] The verb continues as Icelandic búa, Faroese búgva, Swedish bo and Danish bo.^[4]

Timeline

• 1192 – bio “prepared” in the encyclopedic notes ONP cites as EncCod1812.^[7]
• 1200 – bua “dwell” in a manuscript of about 1200.^[7]
• 1200–1225 – bua, byr, bió in the Norwegian manuscript AM 619 4to.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. to have one's own land and household, to farm.^[7][13]
2. to live, dwell (somewhere), often as householder; to stay, be.^[7][13]
3. (on board ship) to have one's station.^[7]
4. to live with someone as spouse; to lie with someone.^[7]
5. to prepare, make ready, equip.^[7][13]
6. to dress, adorn.^[13][9]

Word family

• bú
• búð
• búi
• bóndi
• búinn
• búnaðr
• búr
• bœr
• býr

Descendants

• Icelandic búa^[1]
• Faroese búgva^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk bu^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål bu^[1]
• Swedish bo^[1]
• Danish bo^[1]
• Middle English busken (→ English busk)^[11][5]

Related words

• byggja

Usage notes

The same spelling is a rare noun búa “mugwort”, recorded once in a medical text of 1387.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 71
3. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 52
4. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. búa
5. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 63
6. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. U 336
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. búa
8. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 70
9. ^ 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. búa
10. ^ A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. búa
11. ^ a b Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
12. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
13. ^ a b c d Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. búa