drepa

Forms

drepa (singular past indicative drap, plural past indicative drápu, past participle drepinn) (strong)^[1] Swedish runic participles tribin, trbin and terebina for drepinn.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to strike”),^[1][5] with cognates in Old English drepan (“to strike, kill”), Old Saxon ofar-drepan (“to surpass”) and Old High German treffan (“to hit”).^[5][6][7] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon calls the origin uncertain, since the verb has no direct match outside Germanic.^[8]

Kroonen takes it as a secondary strong verb made from the iteratives of Proto-Germanic *drabaną (“to hew”), the verb of Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (gadraban, “to hew out”);^[9] de Vries also sees a by-form of the Gothic verb.^[7] Beyond Germanic both point to Proto-Slavic *drobiti (“to crush”),^[9][5] and Pokorny's root Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- (“to crush”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is on record first in Swedish runic inscriptions, as the participle drepinn “killed”: on Ög 81, which Rundata dates to the late 900s, varð á Holmi Halfdan drepinn “Halfdan was killed at Holmr”.^[3] In manuscripts ONP's first record is in a homily of about 1150, where an angel scal coma a enom efstom dogom a mót antacriste oc drepa hann meþ elldíngo “shall come in the last days against Antichrist and strike him with lightning”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “to strike, knock”, of a blow, of striking harp strings, hammering iron or knocking at a door; with the dative it means “to thrust, put, dip” something, as in drepa fœti “to stumble”.^[13][14] From striking a fatal blow (drepa í hel, drepa til bana) came the sense “to kill”, by far the commonest in ONP, which in turn gave “to slaughter” (an animal) and “to take” (a piece in a board game).^[12] Hellquist sees “kill” as a narrowing of “strike”, or a remnant of a verb with a lost prefix like ga-;^[15] the same meaning is in Old English.^[16] ONP's genre table shows the verb far more often in the laws than expected.^[12]

Cleasby and Vigfússon derive drápa, the skaldic poem with a refrain, from striking the strings.^[17] The verb continues as Icelandic drepa, Faroese drepa, Norwegian Nynorsk drepe, Swedish dräpa and Danish dræbe, all meaning “to kill”.^[1][15]

Timeline

• 900s – drepinn on the runestone Ög 81, dated by Rundata to the late 900s.^[3]
• 1150 – drepa hann meþ elldíngo “strike him with lightning” in a homily.^[12]
• 1180 – drepa bufe hans “kill his livestock” in a text of the Gulaþing law.^[12]
• 1187 – of dipping a child in the water at baptism.^[12]
• 1200–1225 – drepr, drap and drepa in AM 619 4to.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. to strike a violent blow, knock down;^[12][13] drepa í hel, drepa til bana to strike dead.^[12][13]
2. to kill, destroy.^[12]
3. to take (a piece) in a board game such as chess.^[12][13]
4. to slaughter (animals).^[12][19]
5. to hit, knock, hammer (on something); drepa á dyrr to knock at the door.^[12][13]
6. (with the dative) to put, thrust, dip something;^[14][20] drepa fœti to stumble.^[14][20]

Word family

• dráp
• drep
• drepsótt
• manndráp

Descendants

• Icelandic drepa^[1]
• Faroese drepa^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk drepe^[1]
• Old Swedish dræpa^[1]
• Swedish dräpa^[1]
• Danish dræbe^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål drepe^[1]

Related words

• drápa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 81
4. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Sö 333
5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 75
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 83
8. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. drepa
9. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 98
10. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke, p. 272
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. drepa
13. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. drepa
14. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. drepa
15. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. dräpa
16. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 212
17. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 105
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
19. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 139
20. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 92