dregg

Forms

dregg f (genitive dreggjar, plural dreggjar)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *dragjō (“dregs, yeast”).^[3][4][5][6] Kroonen describes it as a Germanic and Balto-Slavic stem Proto-Indo-European *dʰragʰ-ieh₂-, matching Lithuanian dragės (“yeast”), Old Prussian dragios (“yeast”) and Albanian dra (“sediment, dregs”).^[3] Orel allows that the Old Prussian word may be a loan from Germanic.^[4]

West Germanic has related words with a suffix in /-st-/: Old English dærste (“lees, leaven”) and Old High German trestir (“dregs”).^[7][6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and de Vries also compare Latin fracēs (“dregs of oil”), and refer the group to a root meaning “turbid, dirt”, the root of draf.^[7][6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated record is from 1400, in the Norse Vitae patrum (ONP's VP), where dregg may mean vinegar: Leggr (hann) framm hia salltinu litit af dregg ok nøckut af oleo “He sets out beside the salt a little dregg and some oil”.^[9] Fritzner gives Latin modicum acetum “a little vinegar” as the original of the phrase.^[10]

Semantic evolution

ONP has three senses, yeast or leaven, lees and dregs, and, doubtfully, vinegar.^[9] Zoëga gives only “yeast, leaven”, Cleasby and Vigfússon only “dregs, lees”, mostly in the plural dreggjar.^[1][2] The Borgarþing law has the figure nú verða opt lítlar lífs dreggjar, of how little it takes to keep a life going.^[11][10] In skaldic diction dreggjar brim “surf of the yeast” is mead, the mead of poetry.^[12]

Icelandic dregg keeps both “yeast” and “dregs”.^[7][13] English dregs is from the Norse word, recorded about 1300.^[14][15] Cox finds the derivation of Scottish Gaelic driog (“drop”) from it unlikely.^[16]

Timeline

• 1400 – litit af dregg, perhaps “a little vinegar”, the first dated record.^[9]
• 1450 – dregg “yeast” in a legendary saga.^[9]
• 1475 – án dreg “without leaven”, of unleavened bread in Stjórn.^[9][10]
• c. 1300 – English dregs, from Norse.^[14]
• 1720 – dreggjum in the Icelandic corpus.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. yeast, leaven.^[9][1][18]
2. lees, dregs, sediment, mostly in the plural.^[9][2][18]
3. perhaps vinegar.^[9][10]

Word family

• víndregg
• lífsdregg

Descendants

• Icelandic dregg^[7]
• Faroese dregg^[7]
• Swedish drägg^[7]
• English dregs^[14]

Related words

• draf

Usage notes

Modern Icelandic also has a second dregg “small anchor”, a loan from Danish.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. dregg
2. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 104
3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 99
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 74
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. dregg
6. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 82
7. ^ a b c d e f g Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. dregg
8. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 514
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. dregg
10. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. dregg
11. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 138
12. ^ 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. dregg
13. ^ Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 140
14. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. dregs
15. ^ Björkman, Erik (1900–1902), Scandinavian Loan-Words in Middle English, 2 vols, Halle: Niemeyer (Studien zur englischen Philologie 7, 11), p. 234
16. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. driog
17. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
18. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 91