faðir

Forms

faðir m (genitive fǫður, plural feðr) (strong r-stem)^[1] Runic faþiR on the Rök stone^[2] and accusative foþur on the Norwegian stone N 273.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *fadēr (“father”),^[4][1] which gave Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌳𐌰𐍂 (fadar), Old English fæder, Old Frisian feder, Old Saxon fadar and Old High German fater.^[4][5] It is the Indo-European word for “father”, Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr, a ter-stem, the source also of Latin pater, Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr), Old Irish athir, Tocharian A pācar and Tocharian B pācer.^[4][5]

Hellquist and Falk and Torp derive the word from the nursery word ⟨pa⟩ with the suffix *-ter- of kinship terms.^[6][7] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon mentions this view and another, from a root *pō(i)-, *pā- “to protect”, and calls both doubtful.^[8] De Vries cites Trier's argument that the word was a legal term for the head of the family rather than a biological one.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Rök stone, which Rundata dates to the 800s, has the word in its opening lines: En Varinn fáði, faðir, ept feigjan son “And Varinn, the father, coloured (the runes) in memory of his dead son”.^[2][10] The Norwegian stones use it in the memorial formula, as on N 273 of 980–1015: Þormóðr reisti stein þenna eptir Þormóð … fǫður sinn “Þormóðr raised this stone in memory of Þormóðr …, his father”.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Besides the natural father, ONP separates the man named or recognised as a child's father, God as father of Jesus, God as the Father in the Trinity, and God as father of all Christians.^[12] The plural feðr was used of the Church Fathers from the first manuscripts on,^[12] and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon adds the senses “originator” and a form of address for Catholic clergy.^[8] In poetry the word forms kennings, such as faðir galdrs for Óðinn.^[13] More than a third of ONP's citations are from legal texts, far more than expected.^[12]

It continues as Icelandic faðir and Faroese faðir, and as Swedish fader and Danish fader, with the short forms Swedish far and Danish far.^[9][6]

Timeline

• 800s – faþiR on the Rök stone.^[2]
• 980–1015 – foþur on the Norwegian runestone N 273.^[3]
• 1150 – faðir, föður and feðra in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[14]
• 1175 – feþra “of the (Church) Fathers” in the Elucidarius.^[12]
• 1187 – foður of God the Father in the baptismal formula of a Christian law.^[12]
• 1200 – God as father of Jesus in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a father.^[12][15]
2. the man named or recognised as a child's father, the natural father.^[12]
3. (Christian) God, as father of Jesus, as the Father in the Trinity, and as father of all Christians.^[12]
4. (Christian, plural) the Church Fathers.^[12]
5. an originator, author.^[8]

Word family

• forfaðir
• guðfaðir
• stjúpfaðir
• fóstrfaðir
• langfaðir
• alfaðir
• faðerni
• feðgar
• feðgin

Descendants

• Icelandic faðir^[1]
• Faroese faðir^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk far^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål far^[1]
• Swedish fader^[1]
• Danish fader^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 136
3. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 273
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 121
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 88
6. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. fader
7. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. fader
8. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. faðir
9. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 109
10. ^ Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
11. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 273
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. faðir
13. ^ Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1860), Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, Hafniæ: Societas regia antiquariorum septentrionalium, p. 160
14. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
15. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. faðir