gelda

Forms

gelda weak verb (past tense gelda, past participle geldr)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *galdijaną (“to castrate”),^[2][3] a verb made to the adjective Proto-Germanic *galdaz (“barren”), whence Old Norse geldr (“barren, giving no milk”).^[4][5][6] The verb has relatives in Old Swedish gælda and Middle Dutch gelten,^[7][6] and the adjective in Old English gielde (“barren”), Middle Low German gelde and Old High German galt (“barren, giving no milk”).^[2][5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon reads the changing stem vowel, as in galder beside the Norse form, as a trace of an old u-stem.^[6][2]

The adjective has no direct match in the other Indo-European languages, and its origin is disputed.^[6] A link with gala (“to chant”) and galdr (“spell”), giving an original sense “bewitched”, is unlikely according to Ásgeir.^[6] Jóhannesson derived it from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰel- (“to cut”), the root of the Sanskrit word for the plough,^[8] as Etymonline does after Watkins;^[9] de Vries and Ásgeir reject this, Ásgeir because the adjective is used of barren female animals, dry land and dried-up springs as well, so that its first sense was rather “dry, barren”.^[2][6] De Vries prefers a root meaning “to peel off”, and cites Schwarz, who compared Latin glīscō (“to grow fat”) on the ground that gelding made animals grow.^[2] Torp took it as a participle of a root meaning “to yawn”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

IcePaHC's first record is of 1210.^[10] ONP's earliest dated citation is from the manuscript AM 645 4to of 1220, in a story of Bishop Þorlákr: maþr lét gelda hest ... vngan oc goþan “a man had a horse gelded, young and good”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used of gelding livestock, horses especially, and of castrating men;^[11] ONP finds it most of all in the laws.^[11] The Norwegian laws impose castration as a punishment,^[13] and Grágás allows it for vagrants: rétt er at gelda göngumenn.^[14] The past participle geldr appears in the legal pair geldr eða graðr “gelded or entire”.^[11][13] In the Eddic Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, one speaker taunts another that giant maidens gelded him at Gnipalundr: þik geldo fyr Gnipalunde þursameyjar.^[7]

Modern Icelandic gelda also means to let a cow go dry;^[15] the verb continues as Faroese gelda, Nynorsk gjelda, Swedish gälla and Danish gilde.^[6] English geld “to castrate”, from about 1300, is from the Norse verb,^[9][2][8] and English gelding from its derivative geldingr.^[9]

Timeline

• 1210 – the first record in IcePaHC.^[10]
• 1220 – maþr lét gelda hest in the manuscript AM 645 4to.^[11][12]
• 1250 – used of men in Grágás.^[11]
• 1260–1270 – geldi in the manuscript Me II 2.^[16]
• c. 1300 – English geld “to castrate”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. to geld, castrate (an animal, especially a horse).^[11][1]
2. to castrate a man, in the laws as a punishment.^[11][13][17]

Descendants

• Icelandic gelda^[6]
• Faroese gelda^[6]
• Norwegian Nynorsk gjelda^[6]
• Swedish gälla^[6]
• Danish gilde^[6]
• Middle English gelden^[2]
• English geld^[9]

Related words

• geldr
• geldingr
• gjalding

Usage notes

A different verb is written gelda in some Norwegian texts: a form of gjalda “to pay”, which ONP treats separately.^[11][13]

References

1. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. gelda
2. ^ a b c d e f g de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 162
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. gelda
4. ^ Heidermanns, Frank (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. 228
5. ^ a b c Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 132
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. geldur
7. ^ a b Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 331
8. ^ a b Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 385
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
11. ^ 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. gelda
12. ^ a b Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 108
13. ^ a b c d Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 233
14. ^ Möbius, Theodor (1866), Altnordisches Glossar, Leipzig: Teubner, p. 135
15. ^ Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 246
16. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Me II 2
17. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 190