fylja

Forms

fylja f (genitive fylju) (weak jōn-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It belongs with foli (“foal”) and fyl (“foal”);^[2][3] Etymonline calls it the feminine of “foli” and traces it to Proto-Germanic *fuljo, from Proto-Indo-European *pau- (“few, little”).^[4] The Pokorny root is “pōu-” “small, young of animals”.^[5][6] Its relatives in the mainland languages are Norwegian Nynorsk fylje and, in Swedish dialects, föllja and fyllja;^[7][2] the form fyla stands beside it.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded in Gísla saga, in a pun after Þorgrímr has struck a man on the cheek (a blow called kinnhestr “cheek-horse”): hafa skal ek vilia til at fꜳ þer þar fylu, er þu færr mer fola “I will try to get you a filly for the foal you give me”.^[9][10] ONP dates this citation 1407, with the variant fylíu in the saga's fragment.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

ONP has only two citations, both from family sagas.^[9] The word continues in Icelandic fylja.^[1]

English filly goes back to Middle English filli, which the MED compares with fylja and first quotes in 1404;^[11] Björkman and de Vries take it from Norse.^[2] Etymonline dates it to about 1400 and calls the source possibly Norse.^[4]

Timeline

• 1404 – Middle English fyly, fylys in Durham accounts.^[11]
• 1407 – fylu, variant fylíu, in Gísla saga.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. a filly, young mare.^[9][12][10]

Descendants

• Icelandic fylja^[1]
• Middle English filli (→ English filly)^[11][2]

Related words

• foli
• fyl

Usage notes

ONP has a separate verb fylja “to foal”, recorded once, in a variant of 1512: Hann var fyljaðr í ey einni “he was foaled on an island”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 148
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. fylja
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
6. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 564
7. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. fyl
8. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. fyla
9. ^ a b c d e f g Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. fylja
10. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 179
11. ^ a b c 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)
12. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. fylja