fyrir

Forms

fyrir preposition with dative and accusative, and adverb; also fyr^[1][2] Viking Age runic spellings: firir in Norway,^[3] firir, firiR, friR and furiR in Sweden.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *furi (“before, for”), which also gave Old Saxon furi and Old High German furi.^[5][6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon explains ⟨fyrir⟩ as probably formed from fyr with the comparative suffix ⟨-ir⟩, like eptir and yfir;^[7] Torp and Hellquist describe it the same way.^[8][9] In the Eddic poems ⟨fyr⟩ was at first the preposition only, and ⟨fyrir⟩ the postposition and adverb.^[10]

Related forms in the other Germanic languages are Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂 (faur), Old English for, Old Frisian fora, Old Saxon fora and Old High German fora.^[11][12] Orel relates them to Ancient Greek πάρ (pár, “along”) and the Latin prefix por-.^[11] Lehmann gives porrigō (“to stretch out”) as an example of it.^[13][11] Feist sees several Indo-European forms merged in Germanic,^[12] and Köbler refers them to Pokorny's root Proto-Indo-European *per- (“forward, through”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is a Norwegian runic inscription of 1000–1050: Saxi gerði, Guðs þakka, fyrir sálu móður sinnar, Þorríði, brú þessa, in the runes firir · sal(o) mouþor sinar, “Saxi made this bridge, for God's thanks, for the soul of his mother Þorríðr”.^[3][14] The Swedish Viking Age stones use it the same way, furiR ans salu “for his soul”.^[15][4] In the manuscripts ONP's first dated citation, of 1150, is temporal: es ver hýggiom at vercom þeírra es fyrer oss ero farner or heíme “when we consider the works of those who have gone from the world before us”.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The first meaning is spatial, “in front of, before”, with the dative for rest and the accusative for motion.^[1][17] From it came “in the presence of”, “at the head of”, “superior to”, and in time “before” and, with the dative, “ago”.^[1] Standing in front of someone gave “for, on behalf of, instead of”, and both the obstacle in one's way and the cause: “against”, “because of”, fyrir því at “because”.^[1] The short fyr fell out of use outside compounds, where for- is the more common form.^[18] The Lexicon Poeticum notes that fyrir before its noun becomes common in skaldic verse in the twelfth century, with one example from the eleventh.^[19]

The word continues as Icelandic fyrir, Faroese fyri, Nynorsk fyre and Swedish före and för.^[7][9]

Timeline

• 1000–1050 – firir “for (the soul of)” on the Norwegian runestone N A53.^[3]
• 1150 – fyrer “before” in ONP's earliest dated manuscript citation.^[16]
• 1150 – fyrir in IcePaHC's First Grammar text, by its dating.^[20]
• 1192 – fyʀer pisl sina “before his passion”.^[16]
• 1200–1225 – fyrir, fyri and fyr in the manuscript AM 619 4to.^[21]

Meanings

Preposition

1. with the dative, before, in front of;^[1][16] fyrir dyrum “before the door”.^[1][16]
2. with the dative, in the presence of.^[1]
3. with the dative, at the head of, over; superior to.^[1]
4. with the dative, of time, ago;^[1] fyrir löngu “long ago”.^[1]
5. (nautical) off, along a coast; with the wind or current.^[1][16]
6. with the dative, because of; against;^[1] fyrir því at “because”.^[1]
7. with the accusative, before, into the presence of; over, fyrir borð “overboard”.^[1]
8. with the accusative, along; past, round a headland.^[1]
9. with the accusative, of time, before;^[1] fyrir dag “before daybreak”.^[1]
10. with the accusative, for, on behalf of, instead of; in return for.^[1][22]

Adverb

1. in front, in the way; present; beforehand, fyrir fram.^[23]

Word family

• fyrr
• fyrri
• fyrstr
• fyrirfram

Descendants

• Icelandic fyrir^[7]
• Faroese fyri^[7]
• Norwegian Nynorsk fyre^[7]
• Swedish före^[9]

Related words

• fyr
• for
• fjarri

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. fyrir
2. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. fyr
3. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N A53
4. ^ a b Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. fyrir
8. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 231
9. ^ a b c Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. för, före
10. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 302
11. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 119
12. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 96
13. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 138
14. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. A 53
15. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. U 327
16. ^ a b c d e f Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. fyrir
17. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. fyrir
18. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 180
19. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 161
20. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
21. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
22. ^ 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. fyrir
23. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 107