byggja

byggja¹ settle, inhabit

Forms

byggja (singular past indicative bygði, plural past indicative bygðu, past participle bygðr) (weak class 1 (long stem))^[1] The older form byggva is the one in the oldest Icelandic manuscripts: byggver, byggva in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[2] Runic bygþe “lived in, settled” on a Faroese stone of about 1200 or a little later.^[3]

Etymology

The word for settling and inhabiting is inherited from Proto-Germanic *būwijaną (“to build, settle”),^[1] which Gersum, de Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon give as *ƀewwjan- or *ƀuwwjan-;^[4][5][6] the ⟨ggv⟩ is the Norse sharpening of ⟨ww⟩.^[4][7] Its West Germanic relatives are Old English bȳan (“to inhabit”), Old Frisian būwa, Old Saxon būan and Old High German būan, and Gothic has no sharpened cognate.^[4][8]

De Vries finds the ablaut unclear but places it with búa (“to dwell”),^[5] and Orel derives it from the Germanic verb behind that one.^[8] The UT lexicon files it under Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *bheu- (“to be, grow”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's earliest dated citations are from the Elucidarius of 1175, in the sense “dwell”: þar es heilog þrenning bvggver “where the Holy Trinity dwells”.^[10] The Icelandic Homily Book of about 1200 has þeir men er heimeɴ byɢva “those men who inhabit the world”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

ONP orders the senses from taking land into possession and settling it, to settling somewhere, inhabiting a place, and simply living or being somewhere, including a man's station on board ship.^[10] The settlement sense is the one of the Icelandic histories, Ingólfr bygði fyrstr landit “Ingólfr was the first settler”,^[11][12] and byggja eina sæng meant to share a bed.^[12][13] ONP's citations are densest in the laws, histories and religious works.^[10]

The sense “build” is late: Jóhannesson dates it in Icelandic to the end of the fourteenth or the start of the fifteenth century and takes it from the other Nordic languages,^[14] and Falk and Torp call it a later meaning.^[15] It is the main sense of Swedish bygga and Danish bygge.^[7][15] The Norse verb passed into Middle English biggen (“to settle, found, build”), recorded from the Ormulum on, mainly in the north and east.^[4][16]

Timeline

• 1175 – bvggver “dwells” in the Elucidarius.^[10]
• c. 1200 – byɢva “inhabit” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[10]
• c. 1200 or a little later – bygþe þenna stað fyrst “first lived in this place” on the Faroese runestone FR 2.^[3]
• 1200–1225 – byggva, byggvir in AM 619 4to.^[17]
• 1250 – sua sem þeir bygðo siðan “as they settled it afterwards”, of land-taking.^[10]
• 1275 – A hans daugum bygðiz Island “In his days Iceland was settled”.^[10]
• c. 1400 – the sense “build” appears in Icelandic, by Jóhannesson's account.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. to take (land) into possession, settle and cultivate.^[10][12]
2. to settle (somewhere), take up residence.^[10][18]
3. to inhabit, live in, occupy;^[10][12] byggja eina sæng to share a bed.^[10][12]
4. to live, dwell, be (somewhere).^[10][19]
5. (on board ship) to have one's station.^[10]
6. (late) to build.^[14][20]

Word family

• bygð
• bygging
• byggjandi
• nýbygðr
• albygðr

Descendants

• Icelandic byggja^[1]
• Faroese byggja^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk byggja^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål bygge^[1]
• Old Swedish byggia^[1]
• Swedish bygga^[1]
• Danish bygge^[1]
• Middle English biggen^[1]

byggja² let out; marry

Forms

byggja (singular past indicative bygði, plural past indicative bygðu, past participle bygðr) (weak class 1 (long stem))^[1]

Etymology

The word for letting out and, in older use, for taking a wife is inherited from Proto-Germanic *bugjaną (“to buy”),^[1][21] the verb behind Gothic 𐌱𐌿𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bugjan, “to buy”), Old English bycgan (“to buy”) and Old Saxon buggian (“to buy”).^[22][23][24] Its Norse sense “marry” is in origin “buy (a wife)”.^[5][6]

Its origin is unclear.^[6][25] Grienberger connected it with Proto-Germanic *beuganą (“to bend”), through “bring something under one's control”;^[22] Feist rejected this,^[22] while Orel accepts it, comparing Ancient Greek πωλέω (pōléō, “to sell”) beside πέλω (pélō, “to turn”).^[21] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon likewise reports the link with beygja and bugr.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the Konungsbók of Grágás, of 1250, in the sense “marry”: iafna ætt scal byɢia. sifiar oc frændsemi at .v. maɴi hvartveɢia “one may marry at an equal degree, in affinity and in kinship alike at the fifth degree”.^[10] The same manuscript has the sense “let out”: þeir bygðo lond sin “they let out their lands”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The sense “marry” belongs to the old laws and to the Ynglinga saga's þat var bannat með Ásum at byggja svá náit at frændsemi “it was forbidden among the Æsir to marry so close in kinship”.^[6][13] The sense “let out, lease” covers land, ships, cattle and goods, and byggja dautt fé was to lend money at interest, mainly in Norwegian law.^[26][18] Old Swedish bygg(j)a meant “lend, rent”, and Icelandic byggja keeps the sense “let (land)”.^[5][27]

Timeline

• 1250 – byɢia “marry” in the Konungsbók of Grágás.^[10]
• 1250 – þeir bygðo lond sin “they let out their lands”, in the same manuscript.^[10]
• 1289 – at ver hafum bygt þeima manne ... .ii. aura bol “that we have let to this man a two-öre holding”, in a Norwegian charter.^[10]
• 1351 – Eindrider byghdi Olafue ... optnemda jord “Eindriði let the said land to Ólafr” for three years, in a Norwegian charter.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of a man) to marry, take a wife, originally by paying for her.^[13][5][20]
2. to let out, lease (land, a ship, cattle).^[26][18][1]
3. to lend (money) at interest.^[26][1]