fara

Forms

fara (singular past indicative fór, plural past indicative fóru, past participle farit) (strong)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *faraną (“to go”),^[1][2] a strong verb of the sixth class.^[3] The same verb is Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌽 (faran), Old English faran, Old Frisian fara, Old Saxon faran and Old High German faran.^[2][4]

Kroonen explains it as an o-grade iterative Proto-Indo-European *pór-e-, whose preterite ⟨fór⟩ was made secondarily on the model of other verbs.^[2] It belongs to Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go across, pass through”),^[5][6] with Ancient Greek πείρω (peírō, “to pierce, run through”), Latin portō (“to carry”), portus (“harbour”) and Proto-Slavic *perti (“to fly”).^[4][5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon notes that the root's family grew large in every ablaut grade, and that it includes fjǫrðr (“fjord”).^[5]

Several senses seem to come from prefixes that were lost: Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon suggests one meaning “to go on, endure” for “die, end, suit”, one meaning “to go to ruin” for “kill, destroy”, and one meaning “to go out” for “experience, behave”.^[5] The sense “to kill” corresponds to Old English forfaran (“to destroy, perish”), and in older texts the verb has the particle ⟨of⟩ in that sense.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old Norse proper it is first dated on the Senja neck-ring from northern Norway, which Imer dates to 1000–1100: Fóru[m] drengja Fríslands á vit “we went to meet the warriors of Frisia”.^[8][9] Undated Viking Age runestones in Sweden have fór, fóru and the participle farinn of men who travelled abroad.^[10] The first manuscript record in ONP is the Elucidarius of 1175, both “to go through” and “to perish”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Cleasby and Vigfússon note that almost no Icelandic verb is used more often, since it serves for every kind of motion, while Gothic has faran only once.^[12] From “to move, travel” ONP's senses run to “set off”, “set about”, “go away, perish, die”, “happen, turn out”, “behave”, “look” and “fit (of clothes)”, and with an object “suffer”, “overtake” and “destroy”.^[11] With the road in the accusative, genitive or dative it means to make a journey (fara leiðar sinnar), and with an object of loss fara ósigr is to suffer defeat.^[13] The present participle farandi named a vagrant, as in farandkona “beggar woman”.^[14][15] Its many combinations with adverbs and prepositions (fara at, fara með, fara fram) each have their own range of senses in ONP.^[11]

It survives as Icelandic fara, Swedish fara and Danish fare.^[16] In Swedish the senses “to act” and “to fare (well or badly)” are already Old Swedish.^[17]

Timeline

• 1000–1100 – Fóru[m] “we went” on the Senja neck-ring, by Imer's dating.^[8][9]
• 1150–1250 – fór on the Norwegian runic inscription N 351.^[18]
• 1175 – “to go through” and “to perish” in the Elucidarius of AM 674 a 4to.^[11]
• 1200–1225 – fara, ferr, fóru in AM 677 4to.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. to move, go, travel, journey.^[11][13]
2. to set about, begin (something).^[11]
3. to set off, depart.^[11]
4. to go away, disappear, perish, die.^[11]
5. to go, take place, happen, turn out, end.^[11]
6. to behave, act.^[11]
7. (of clothes) to fit, suit.^[11][20]
8. (with an object) to suffer, undergo.^[11][13]
9. to overtake, catch up with.^[11][21]
10. to destroy, ruin, put an end to; to kill.^[11][1]

Word family

• far
• fǫr
• ferð
• farmr
• ferill
• ferja
• fœra
• farandi
• fyrirfara
• misfara

Descendants

• Icelandic fara^[1]
• Faroese fara^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk fara^[1]
• Old Swedish fara^[1]
• Swedish fara^[1]
• Old Danish fara^[1]
• Danish fare^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål fare^[1]

Related words

• fjǫrðr

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 128
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. fara
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 93
5. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. fara
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. s.v. forfaran
8. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 540
9. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 540
10. ^ Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. fara
12. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 141
13. ^ a b c Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. fara
14. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. fara
15. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 126
16. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 112
17. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. fara
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 351
19. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
20. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 77
21. ^ 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. fara