froða

Forms

froða f (genitive froðu)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *fruþō (“foam”),^[2] a weak noun beside the strong frauð (“froth”).^[3][4] Old English has the related verb Old English āfrēoþan (“to froth”).^[5][6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and Holthausen compare a Sanskrit verb meaning “to snort, blow”, and Köbler places the family under Proto-Indo-European *preut- (“to spray, snort”).^[6][5][7]

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon sees the original sense “blow” preserved in Norwegian Nynorsk froe (“gust of wind”), and connects freyða (“to foam”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated record is in Maríu saga, in a manuscript of 1350: Þá setti út froðu mikla um munninn “Then a great deal of froth came out round the mouth”.^[8] The record of 1362 also has foam at the mouth, of wild boars: spyta þeir af munnínvm frodu af mædinne “they spit froth from their mouths from exhaustion”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

ONP gives froth, foam and mucus as the main sense and, in three records, semen as a bodily fluid.^[8] Baetke glosses it “foam, slaver”, and most records are in religious texts and romances.^[9][8] In later Icelandic it is frequent, with compounds such as froðufall “foaming at the mouth”.^[1]

The word continues as Icelandic froða, Faroese froða, Norwegian Nynorsk frode and Danish fråde.^[6][3] De Vries, after Björkman, takes Middle English froþe, English froth, from the Norse word;^[3] Etymonline derives it from an unrecorded Old English word or from Old Norse.^[10]

Timeline

• 1350 – froðu mikla “much froth” in Maríu saga.^[8]
• 1362 – frodu in Trójumanna saga, of wild boars.^[8]
• 1387 – froða in a medical text (ONP's Med194).^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. froth, foam, slaver; mucus.^[8][4][9]
2. semen.^[8]

Word family

• froðufall

Descendants

• Icelandic froða^[6]
• Faroese froða^[6]
• Norwegian Nynorsk frode^[6]
• Danish fråde^[6]

Related words

• frauð
• freyða

References

1. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 174
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. froða
3. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 143
4. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. froða
5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 116
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. froða
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. froða
9. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 164
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. froth