brjósk

Forms

brjósk n (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *breuską (“cartilage”),^[1][2] a word found only in North Germanic, with the ablaut variant *bruska- in Norwegian Nynorsk brosk, Swedish brosk and Danish brusk.^[3][4]

Its origin is disputed.^[3][5] De Vries derives it, if from *breutsk-, from the root of brjóta (“to break”), with an original sense “the brittle thing”, and compares breyskr (“brittle, frail”).^[3] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks of something brittle or crunching, with Old English brȳsan (“to bruise”) and the Swedish dialect verb bruska (“to crunch”),^[5] and Falk and Torp explain it as what crunches between the teeth, as against the meat.^[6] Pokorny instead connects it with Middle High German brūsche (“swelling”) and brjóst (“breast”), under Proto-Indo-European *bʰrews- (“to swell”);^[3][2] de Vries finds this less convincing.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated records are in Konungsbók of Grágás, of 1250, in the rules on wounds: en þa er scorit er nemr briósc eða beín “and it counts as cut when it reaches cartilage or bone”, and Ef hundr bítr i briósc eða i bein “If a dog bites into cartilage or bone”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the one sense “cartilage, gristle”.^[7][8] ONP finds it mostly in legal texts, which set penalties by whether a wound reached cartilage or bone.^[7]

It continues as Icelandic brjósk and Faroese brjósk.^[3] Scottish Gaelic brisgean “gristle” has been derived from it, but Cox finds a loan unlikely, since the Norse word would have given a form with a long vowel.^[9] Etymonline mentions it as one possible source of English brisket.^[10]

Timeline

• 1250 – briósc in Konungsbók of Grágás.^[7]
• 1265 – brjósk in Staðarhólsbók of Grágás.^[7]
• 1270 – brjóski in Grágás, by IcePaHC's dating.^[11]
• 1357 – the word in a saga of Bishop Guðmundr (ONP's GBpD).^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. cartilage, gristle.^[7][8][12]

Word family

• flagbrjósk

Descendants

• Icelandic brjósk^[5]
• Faroese brósk^[5]
• Norwegian Nynorsk brjosk^[5]

Related words

• breyskr
• brjóta

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b c d e f de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 57
4. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. brosk
5. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. brjósk
6. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. brusk
7. ^ a b c d e f g Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. brjósk
8. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. brjósk
9. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. brisgean
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. brisket
11. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
12. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 80