beita

Forms

beita (singular past indicative beitti, plural past indicative beittu, past participle beittr) (weak class 1 (long stem))^[1] beita f (genitive beitu), weak ōn-stem: the noun “bait”.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *baitijaną (“to make bite”),^[1][2] the causative of Proto-Germanic *bītaną (“to bite”), which gave bíta.^[2][3][4] The causative has the cognates Old English bǣtan (“to bridle, restrain”) and Old High German beizen (“to spur on; hunt with hawks”).^[2][4][5] The root is traced to Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”).^[6][7]

The noun “bait” comes from the same stem;^[1][7] beside it stand bāt (“bait”) and beiza (“mordant; hawking”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated citation of the verb, from about 1200, is about harnessing: voro ozn beittir fvrir vagninn “oxen were yoked to the wagon”.^[8] The noun is dated later, from 1312, in a copy of the Elucidarius: likiaz þeir fiski þeim er fagnar litilli beitv ok verðr hann þa dreiginn vpp or vattni “they are like the fish that welcomes a little bait and is then drawn up out of the water”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Every sense of the verb comes from “cause to bite”: to let cattle bite the grass, to put the bit in a horse's mouth and yoke it, to set hounds or hawks on game, to make a sword bite, and, at sea, to let the ship bite the wind, that is, to sail close to the wind and tack.^[9][10][11] Grazing is the law's sense: ONP's citations come far more often than expected from the law codes, where grazing another man's land is an offence.^[8][12] Beita e-n brǫgðum “to use tricks on someone” carries the sense over to dealings between people.^[8][13] In Snorri's Edda Hymir tells Þórr to find his own bait.^[8]

The verb continues as Icelandic beita, Nynorsk beita, Swedish beta and Danish bede, and the noun as Icelandic and Faroese beita, Swedish bete.^[4][5] Middle English took both, and English bait “food put on a hook” is recorded from about 1300.^[4][14][7] De Vries also lists Russian sailors' betat′ “to tack” and Norman French abéter “to bait” as loans.^[4]

Timeline

• 1200 – beittir fvrir vagninn “yoked to the wagon”, ONP's first dated citation.^[8]
• 1225–1250 – bæitum ver biarnuna “thus we hunt bears” in the legendary saga of St Óláfr, DG 8 II.^[15][8]
• 1250 – grazing of land in the Grágás manuscript Konungsbók.^[8]
• c. 1300 – English bait “food put on a hook or trap”.^[7]
• 1312 – the noun beitu “bait” in a copy of the Elucidarius.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. to put animals out to graze; to graze land, also to another's harm.^[8][13]
2. (law) to infringe someone's grazing rights.^[8]
3. to hunt with dogs or hawks; to set animals on someone.^[8][13]
4. to make a sword or other weapon bite; to wield a weapon; figuratively, to use tricks or wrongs against someone.^[8][13]
5. to contend against someone.^[8]
6. to harness a horse, yoke a draught animal to a wagon.^[8][13]
7. (nautical) to tack, sail close to the wind, beat up against it.^[8][10]

Noun

1. bait, especially for fish.^[8][13]

Descendants

• Icelandic beita^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk beita^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål beite^[1]
• Swedish beta^[4]
• Danish bede^[1]
• Middle English baiten (English bait)^[14][7]

Related words

• bíta
• beit
• beizl

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 33
3. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 65
4. ^ a b c d e f g de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 30
5. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. beita
6. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 602
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ 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. beita
9. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 40
10. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 56
11. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 93
12. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 94
13. ^ a b c d e f Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. beita
14. ^ a b Björkman, Erik (1900–1902), Scandinavian Loan-Words in Middle English, 2 vols, Halle: Niemeyer (Studien zur englischen Philologie 7, 11), p. 41
15. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II