dagr

Forms

dagr m (genitive dags, dative degi, plural dagar) (strong a-stem)^[1] Runic Swedish nominative plural takaR on the stone Vg 119.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *dagaz (“day”),^[1][3] whence also Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags), Old English dæġ, Old Frisian dei, Old Saxon dag and Old High German tag.^[3][4] The word is found throughout Germanic but has no exact match elsewhere in Indo-European.^[5]

Most often it is traced to the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”), with Lithuanian dãgas (“summer heat”) and Middle Irish daig (“fire”);^[4][6][5] Wiktionary objects that the loss of the labial element would then be irregular.^[1] Kroonen instead reconstructs *dʰoǵʰ-o- and relates it to the Germanic r- and n-stems behind dǿgr “a day and night” and dǿgn.^[3] Those r- and n-forms led others to see here the old Indo-European word for “day” of Sanskrit, with a d- taken from words for burning or from a preceding pronoun;^[5][7] de Vries finds that view unconvincing.^[6]

De Vries notes that the word was borrowed into Finnish and Sami as a suffix.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's earliest record is in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 B, dated 1150–1250, with dagr, dag and degi.^[8] ONP's earliest dated citations, from the Elucidarius manuscript of 1175, use it for the day in its two senses, the light time of the day and a day of creation: en at miþiom dege vas cona scopoþ “and at midday woman was created”, and Eɴ .iiii. dag scop hann tiþlegan dag þat es sol oc tungl oc stiornor “and on the fourth day he created the temporal day, that is sun and moon and stars”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

ONP's first sense is the day as opposed to the night, the time of daylight, at times standing for the sun itself; many phrases are built on it: lýsir af degi “day breaks”, á ljósum degi “in broad daylight”, allan dag “all day”.^[9] From this came the day as a unit of time and a date, and the weekdays were named by number, annarr dagr and sjaundi dagr viku.^[9][10] In the laws allr dagr til stefnu meant that a summons was lawful only by day.^[11] In the plural the word means “days, times” and “lifetime”, as in á hans dǫgum “in his days”.^[12][13] The Christian dróttins dagr “the Lord's day” renders Latin dominica dies.^[14]

In Eddic myth Dagr is the day personified, the son of Dellingr.^[15] The word continues as Icelandic dagur, Faroese dagur and Swedish, Norwegian and Danish dag.^[5][16]

Timeline

• 1150–1250 – dagr, degi in NRA norr fragm 81 B.^[8]
• 1175 – at miþiom dege “at midday” in the Elucidarius, by ONP's dating.^[9]
• 1192 – sjaundi dagr viku for a weekday, by ONP's dating.^[9]
• 1200–1225 – dagr, dǫgum, degi in AM 677 4to.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. a day as opposed to night, the time of light; daylight.^[9][12]
2. a day as a unit of time or a fixed day, a date;^[12][18] í dag, today.^[12][18]
3. (plural) days, times;^[12] góðir dagar, happy days.^[12]
4. (plural) lifetime, life;^[12][13] ráða e-n af dǫgum, to put someone to death.^[12][13]

Word family

• daga
• dagan
• dagliga
• dagligr
• dagleið
• dagmál
• dagsbrún
• dagsljós
• dagsverk
• dagstjarna
• miðdagr

Descendants

• Icelandic dagur^[1]
• Faroese dagur^[1]
• Norn dagh^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk dag^[1]
• Old Swedish dagher^[1]
• Swedish dag^[1]
• Old Danish dagh^[1]
• Danish dag^[1]

Related words

• dǿgr

Usage notes

Dagr is also a man's name, with Lind's earliest dated record in 1161,^[19] and the name of several mythical and legendary figures.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 86
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 66
5. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. dagur
6. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 71
7. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. dag
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 B
9. ^ a b c d e f Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. dagr
10. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. dagr
11. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 93
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. dagr
13. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 82
14. ^ Kahle, Bernhard (1890), Die altnordische Sprache im Dienste des Christentums I, Berlin, p. 354
15. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 1269
16. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. dag
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
18. ^ a b Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 51
19. ^ Lind, E. H. (1905–1915), Norsk-isländska dopnamn ock fingerade namn från medeltiden, Uppsala & Leipzig, p. col. 30
20. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 77