dúsa

Forms

dúsa v (past tense dúsaða, past participle dúsat)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited, a verb with the long vowel of a Germanic stem whose short-vowelled forms include Old Frisian dusia (“to be dizzy”) and Middle Low German dosen (“to doze”).^[2][3] The nearest cognates are the dialect words Norwegian Nynorsk dusa (“to rest, doze”) and Swedish dusa (“to slumber”).^[3][4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon relates it to Old English dysig (“foolish”), Old High German tusīg (“dull, foolish”) and Old English dwǣs (“dull”),^[4][5] and Jóhannesson places the group under a root meaning “to whirl, blow”.^[6]

de Vries treats the sense “to resound”, compared with Old Swedish dus (“noise”), separately, and calls its relation to “to rest” unclear.^[3] Torp takes both senses together, from “to rush, strike hard” to “to be stunned, be still”, which de Vries finds unconvincing;^[3] Wissmann's derivation from the root of þeysa is a third view.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb is poetic.^[7] A skaldic verse asks why it befits a retainer to sit idle, hví samir hitt at dúsa;^[8][1] in the rímur it is used of keeping still, even of the stillness of death.^[9] In Oddrúnargrátr jǫrð dúsaði ok upphiminn is read by Finnur Jónsson and Fritzner as “earth and heaven were still”, by Gering and Neckel as “earth and heaven resounded”.^{[1][10][11][12]} Zoëga gives “to quake”.^[13]

Modern Icelandic keeps the verb in láttu hann dúsa “let him be”.^[8] Henderson derived Scottish Gaelic dùsal (“doze”) from it, but Cox judges a Norse loan unlikely.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (poetic) to keep still, sit quietly, idle.^[1][10]
2. (poetic) to resound or quake; a reading of one passage of the Edda.^[11][13]

Descendants

• Icelandic dúsa^[4]

Related words

• dús

Usage notes

A feminine noun dúsa “a sugar teat for babies” is a later Icelandic word, recorded from the 18th century, of unclear origin.^[15][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 91
2. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 218
3. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 88
4. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. dúsa
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 506
7. ^ Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. dúsa
8. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 773
9. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1926–1928), Ordbog til de af Samfund til udg. af gammel nordisk litteratur udgivne rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur, Copenhagen, p. 66
10. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. dúsa
11. ^ a b Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 160
12. ^ Neckel, Gustav (1927), Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius, vol. 2: Kommentierendes Glossar, Heidelberg, p. 23
13. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. dúsa
14. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. dùsal
15. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 109