flytja

Forms

flytja (singular past indicative flutti, plural past indicative fluttu, past participle fluttr) (weak class 1 (short stem))^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *flutjaną (“to make float”),^[1][2] a causative made on the zero grade of the strong verb fljóta (“to float”), so that it first meant “to let float”, to carry over water.^[3][4][5] That verb is Proto-Germanic *fleutaną (“to float, stream”), with Old English flēotan and Old High German fliozan, from Proto-Indo-European *pleud-.^[6][7]

The causative has no counterpart in the other Germanic languages.^[5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon groups it with fleyta, flot and flýta.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated record, from the Norwegian homily book of 1212, has the reflexive in the sense “to move oneself, go”: Ec fagnaða þæim tiðendum er mer ero sogð. at vér monum fara ok flytiasc til guðs hus “I rejoiced at the news told to me, that we shall go and betake ourselves to God's house”.^[8] Menota dates its manuscript, AM 619 4to, to 1200–1225, with flytiasc, flutti and fluttu.^[9] IcePaHC finds flytr in the First Grammatical Treatise, a text it dates to 1150.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Fritzner puts first the carrying of people and goods over water, by boat, and then transport in general;^[11] the sense covers trade, exporting and importing goods, and flytjandi eyrir is movable property.^[12][8] Carrying a message led to “say, deliver, recite”: a poem, an errand, a sermon, a case at law.^[11][8] From pleading for someone came “to support, help”.^[13] The laws use it of bringing forward witnesses and pleading a case.^[14][15] The reflexive flytjask is to move oneself, to flit.^[16]

In the mainland languages it came to mean moving house, by leaving out the obvious object, one's belongings: Norwegian Nynorsk flytte, Swedish flytta, Danish flytte.^[5] English flit is from it, through Middle English flitten, recorded from about 1200 as “to carry away, move”.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1150 – flytr in the First Grammatical Treatise, by IcePaHC's dating of the text.^[10]
• 1200–1225 – flytiasc and flutti in the Norwegian AM 619 4to.^[9]
• 1212 – flytiasc til guðs hus “betake ourselves to God's house” in the Norwegian homily book.^[8]
• 1225 – flutto hvártveggia braut “carried both away” in ONP's Ágr.^[8]
• 1237 – flytja “to carry out, perform” in ONP's ÓHLeg.^[8]
• About 1200 – Middle English flitten, from the Old Norse verb.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. to carry, convey, transport (people or goods), especially over water; to export or import.^[8][11]
2. (reflexive flytjask) to move oneself, to go, flit.^[8][16]
3. to bring (something) to someone, to deliver a message.^[8][11]
4. to say, tell, recite (a poem), preach.^[8][16]
5. (law) to plead (a case), to bring forward (witnesses); to intercede for someone.^[16][14][15]
6. to perform (an ordeal, an offering).^[16][12]

Word family

• flutning
• framflytja
• afflytja

Descendants

• Icelandic flytja^[1]
• Faroese flytja^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk flytte^[1]
• Swedish flytta^[1]
• Danish flytte^[1]
• Middle English flitten (→ English flit)^[17][18]

Related words

• fljóta
• fleyta
• flot

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. flytja
3. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. flytta
4. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. flytja
5. ^ a b c Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. flytte
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 147
7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 107
8. ^ 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. flytja
9. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
10. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
11. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. flytja
12. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 162
13. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 149
14. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 198
15. ^ a b A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. flytja
16. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. flytja
17. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
18. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com