gil

Forms

gil n (genitive gils, plural gil) (strong ja-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *gilją (“cleft, gully”).^[1][2] The Swedish dialect word gilja (“hollow way”) is the nearest relative.^[3][4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon sets it in ablaut with the Nynorsk dialect word gîl (“lane between fences”) and compares Middle Low German gīl (“mouth, throat”) and perhaps Old High German gīl (“hernia”).^[4][5] De Vries adds Middle Dutch giel (“open mouth”).^[3]

Both de Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon refer it to geil (“narrow passage”),^[3][4] and de Vries to gjá (“chasm”) too.^[3] Köbler and Wiktionary take it back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to gape, yawn”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated record is an Icelandic charter of 1311, in a boundary: fram fra kartar gile “out from Kartar gully”.^[7] Larsson finds it in the place-name flackagıl in one of the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[8] In the sagas it is a gully cut by a stream, as in gengr gil ofan or fjalli “a gully runs down from the mountain”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Iceland gil is a cleft in a fell side through which a brook runs down to the main river, and it is very common in place-names such as Haukagil.^[10] ONP has it mostly in family sagas and charters.^[7] In skaldic kennings gilja grund “ground of gullies” means the mountains.^[11][12]

The word survives in Icelandic gil and Faroese gil.^[4] English gill “a narrow glen” is a Norse loan.^[3][13]

Timeline

• 1311 – fram fra kartar gile in an Icelandic charter.^[7]
• 1312 – the place-name Baugagili in Njáls saga.^[7]
• 1320–1350 – gil and gilinu in Egils saga in AM 132 fol.^[14]
• 1350 – gili in Bandamanna saga, by IcePaHC's dating.^[15][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. a ravine, gully, a deep narrow glen with a stream at the bottom.^[7][16][10]

Word family

• gilsbotn
• lœkjargil
• sandgil
• moldgil

Descendants

• Icelandic gil^[1]
• Faroese gil^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk gjel^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål gjel^[1]
• Middle English gill (→ English gill)^[13][3]

Related words

• geil
• gjá

Usage notes

Very frequent in Icelandic place-names, as in Hrafnagil and Haukagil.^[10][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. gil
3. ^ a b c d e f de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 166
4. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. gil
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. gīl
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
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. gil
8. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 111
9. ^ a b Möbius, Theodor (1866), Altnordisches Glossar, Leipzig: Teubner, p. 139
10. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 199
11. ^ 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. gil
12. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 181
13. ^ a b Björkman, Erik (1900–1902), Scandinavian Loan-Words in Middle English, 2 vols, Halle: Niemeyer (Studien zur englischen Philologie 7, 11), p. 153
14. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
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. gil