borð

Forms

borð n (genitive borðs, plural borð) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board, table”),^[1][2] cognate with Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (fōtubaúrd, “footstool”), Old English bord, Old Saxon bord and Old High German bort.^[3][4][5]

De Vries, Hellquist and Falk–Torp separate a “borð” “edge, ship's side”, matching Old English “bord” “ship's side, shield” and Old High German “bort” “ship's rail”, from a “borð” “board, table”, matching Gothic “fōtubaúrd” and in ablaut with Old English bred and Old High German bret (“board”).^[6][7][4] For the “board” word de Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon give the root Proto-Indo-European *bher(e)dh- (“to cut”), seen in Ancient Greek πέρθω (pérthō, “to destroy”) and an extension of the root of berja.^[6][8] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon finds the split doubtful and holds that all the senses belong to one word.^[8] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain and also mentions an earlier *burzda- from a root *bʰers- “tip, edge”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears among the oldest manuscripts: Menota's first record is borði in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 A, of 1150–1250,^[9] and IcePaHC finds borði, borð and borðs in the Icelandic Homily Book, which it dates to 1150.^[10] The earliest dated citations in ONP, from the Icelandic homilies of about 1200, mean “table”: þa lǫþoþo þeir haɴ til borþz meþ ser “then they invited him to table with them”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

ONP orders the senses from “board, plank” through “ship's side”, the side of a building, “table”, then “meal” and “board, food, keep”, a gaming board and the rim of a vessel.^[11] The ship sense is the commonest in the sagas and has many phrases: fyrir borð “overboard”, innan borðs “on board”, á bæði borð “on both sides”, and figuratively bera fyrir borð “to set aside, disregard”.^[11][12] The table sense gave phrases for the setting up and removing of trestle tables, setja borð, borð eru uppi “the tables are taken away”.^[11][13] In skaldic poetry borð often stands in kennings for the shield.^[14]

The word continues in all the Nordic languages, as Icelandic and Faroese borð and Norwegian, Swedish and Danish bord.^[6] Cox judges a Norse origin of Scottish Gaelic bòrd “table” unlikely.^[15]

Timeline

• 1150–1250 – borði in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 A.^[9]
• 1150 – borði, borð in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[10]
• 1200 – til borþz “to table” in the Icelandic homilies.^[11]
• 1212 – af borþi ens ꜹþga manz “from the rich man's table” in the Dialogues of Gregory (GregDialA).^[11]
• 1250 – the sense “ship's side” in Grágás (GrgKonᴵᴵ).^[11]
• 1270 – the sense “board, plank” in Strengleikar (Streng).^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. a board, plank or beam.^[11][16]
2. the side of a ship, the gunwale or freeboard;^[11][16] fyrir borð overboard, innan borðs on board.^[11][16]
3. the side of a building.^[11]
4. a table, especially a dining table.^[11][3]
5. a meal, eating at table.^[11]
6. board, food, sustenance.^[11][17]
7. a playing board for a board game.^[11]
8. the rim of a vessel, the margin between the rim and the liquid.^[11][13]
9. (poetic) a shield, in kennings.^[14][17]

Word family

• borða
• matborð
• fótborð
• leikborð
• stjórnborði
• borðveggr
• borðþili

Descendants

• Icelandic borð^[1]
• Faroese borð^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk bord^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål bord^[1]
• Swedish bord^[1]
• Danish bord^[1]

Related words

• barð
• barða
• barði
• borði
• byrða

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 71
4. ^ a b Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. bord
5. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 119
6. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 50
7. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. bord
8. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. borð
9. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 A
10. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
11. ^ 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. borð
12. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 62
13. ^ 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. borð
14. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 56
15. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. bòrd
16. ^ a b c Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. borð
17. ^ a b Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 37