flaga

flaga¹ thin layer of earth

Forms

flaga f (weak n-stem)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a thin layer of earth is inherited: de Vries sets up Germanic stems Proto-Germanic *flahō and *flagō beside *flaka, with the cognate Middle Low German vlage (“layer of earth”).^[2] Torp puts it with fló (“layer”) as its ablaut and grammatical-alternation partner, from a root of flatness.^[3] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon relates it to flá, flag and flagna (“to peel off”).^[4]

De Vries rejects the reading as “a flayed-off sod” and prefers “a flat disc made by splitting”; he takes the Germanic stems as extensions of a root that gave words for wattle, and notes a comparison with Lithuanian plėšinys (“freshly broken field”).^[2] The UT lexicon files it under Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“flat, broad”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota has the plural flǫgur (written flavgvr) in the manuscript Wolf Aug 9 10 4to of 1330–1370,^[6] the form ONP lists as Flogur under this word.^[7] ONP's only dated citation, a charter of 1525, counts it in hundreds, er þat .lx. hundrada. flaga “that is sixty hundred flagas”, and ONP glosses the word in Danish as a bundle (of hay).^[7]

Semantic evolution

Modern Icelandic flaga means a slab or flake split off something, and a thin whetstone.^[8][4] The Norse word passed into Orkney dialect and into Middle English flagge (“sod”), the source of the English flag of flagstone.^[2]

Timeline

• 1330–1370 – the plural flǫgur in Wolf Aug 9 10 4to.^[6]
• 1525 – flaga counted in hundreds in an Icelandic charter.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. a thin layer of earth, a sod or turf.^[2][1]
2. a bundle (of hay).^[7]

Word family

• moldarflaga

Descendants

• Icelandic flaga^[8]
• Norwegian Nynorsk flage^[4]
• Swedish flaga^[2]
• Middle English flagge^[2]

flaga² sudden attack

Forms

flaga f (weak n-stem)^[9]

Etymology

The word for a sudden attack is inherited from Proto-Germanic *flagō,^[9][10] the source also of Middle Low German vlage (“assault, squall”) and Middle High German vlage.^[3][4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon keeps it apart from the word for a layer of earth and relates it to Lithuanian plàkti (“to beat”) and Ancient Greek πλήσσω (plḗssō, “to strike”), and within Norse to flagð, flagg and flengja.^[4] Orel instead derives it from the verb Proto-Germanic *flaxanan (“to flay”).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Old Norse word is a sudden onset or assault;^[11][12] Torp glosses it with Latin procella “storm, squall”.^[3] The relatives name gusts of wind: Faroese flaga a squall at sea, Nynorsk flage an attack or gust, and Old Swedish vädherflagha a gust of weather.^[4][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. a sudden attack, an onset or assault.^[11][12][9]

Descendants

• Faroese flaga^[4]
• Norwegian Nynorsk flage^[4]