gáta

Forms

gáta f (genitive gátu, plural gátur) (weak ōn-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed by ablaut from Old Norse geta (“to get; to guess”),^[2][3][4] which is *getaną (“to find a way, attain”).^[1] Hellquist compares Old Swedish gæta (“to guess”), and Wiktionary and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon set beside it Proto-Slavic *gādàti (“to guess”), with Polish zagadka (“riddle”).^[1][2][4]

From Norse the word passed into the Northern Isles: Scots godek (“riddle”) in Shetland and Scots gaadie (“a play with shadows”) in Orkney.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first dated in Konungs skuggsjá of 1275, in the sense “guess”: Ðer sagðut sva at þæssum þræm gatum at yðr þotti þat licazt væra at … “You spoke of these three guesses so that it seemed likeliest to you that …”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a guess or suspicion, and a riddle is something set to be guessed.^[5][6] The riddle is at home in the legendary sagas, above all in the riddles of Heiðreks saga, with the phrase bera upp gátu “to pose a riddle”, and in the riddles of Samson and of the Queen of Sheba in the religious texts.^[5][7] Translators used it for Latin aenigma: a homily renders per speculum et in aenigmate as sua sem í skuggsjón ok með gatu.^[5] The Third Grammatical Treatise names the figure aenigma gáta, a dark saying used in poetry.^[5]

The West Germanic languages use instead a derivative of the verb “to counsel”, which once also meant “to guess” (German Rätsel).^[4] It continues as Icelandic gáta, Faroese gáta, Swedish gåta and Danish gåde.^[1][3]

Timeline

• 1275 – gatum “guesses” in Konungs skuggsjá.^[5]
• 1306 – bera máttu upp gátur “you may pose riddles” in Heiðreks saga.^[5]
• 1312 – Samson's riddle in Stjórn: Ek man bera vpp fyrir yðr eina litils hattar gatv.^[5]
• 1312 – gáta as the name of a figure of poetic speech in the Third Grammatical Treatise.^[5]
• 1330 – með gatu for Latin in aenigmate in a homily.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. a guess, an assumption or suspicion.^[5][7][8]
2. a riddle to be solved;^[5][9][7] bera upp gátu to pose a riddle, ráða gátu to solve it.^[5][9][7]
3. an enigma, a puzzle or mystery.^[5]
4. (rhetoric) the figure aenigma, an obscure saying in poetry.^[5]

Word family

• ráðgáta
• tilgáta
• getgáta

Descendants

• Faroese gáta^[1]
• Icelandic gáta^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk gåte^[1]
• Danish gåde^[1]
• Swedish gåta^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. gáta
3. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 158
4. ^ a b c Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. gåta
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. gáta
6. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 193
7. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. gáta
8. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 186
9. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. gáta