gapa

Forms

gapa (singular past indicative gapti, plural past indicative gǫptu, past participle gapat) (weak)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *gapōną (“to gape”),^[1][2][3] the source also of Middle Low German gapen and Middle High German gaffen (“to gape, stare”), and of Old English ofergapian (“to forget, neglect”).^[4][5][2] Köbler and Wiktionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to gape, yawn”);^[2][1] Torp instead sets up a root *ghab-.^[3] The noun gap (“opening; shouting”) is formed from the verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota first records it in AM 677 4to, dated 1200–1225, as gapði.^[6] ONP dates the passage to 1212: Hramniɴ gapþi muɴi oc flócti um hverfis hleifiɴ oc scrę́cti “The raven opened its beak wide, flapped round the loaf and screeched”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The verb usually takes munni or another word for the mouth in the dative, and its commonest form is the present participle in með gapanda munni “with gaping jaws”, of wolves and other beasts.^[7][8] Möbius cites the old law that ships must not sail to land með gapandi hǫfðum “with gaping heads”, so as not to frighten the land-spirits.^[9] In the poetry it also means to stare open-mouthed, as in the Skírnismál's gapi þú grindum frá.^[10][11] Fritzner records a sense “to shout, cry out”.^[12]

It continues as Icelandic gapa and Swedish gapa.^[5] English gape is taken from Old Norse by the Middle English Dictionary and Torp;^[13][3] Etymonline dates it to the early 13th century and allows an unrecorded Old English source as well.^[14]

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – gapði in AM 677 4to.^[6]
• 1212 – gapþi muɴi “opened its mouth wide”, of a raven, by ONP's dating.^[7]
• early 13th century – English gape.^[14]
• 1237 – meþ gapanda mun “with gaping mouth”, by ONP's dating.^[7]
• 1300 – gapti in IcePaHC's Alexanders saga text.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. to gape, open the mouth or jaws wide (with the dative munni).^[7][16][17]
2. to stare open-mouthed, look up.^[7][10][11]
3. to shout, cry out.^[12][4]

Word family

• gap

Descendants

• Middle English gapen (→ English gape)^[1]
• Icelandic gapa^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål gape^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk gapa^[1]
• Swedish gapa^[1]

Related words

• gapi

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b c Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 125
4. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 156
5. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. gapa
6. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
7. ^ 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. gapa
8. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 191
9. ^ Möbius, Theodor (1866), Altnordisches Glossar, Leipzig: Teubner, p. 132
10. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 172
11. ^ a b Gering, Hugo (1915), Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda, 4th ed., Paderborn, p. 61
12. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. gapa
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
16. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. gapa
17. ^ 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. gapa