gjǫrð

Forms

gjǫrð f (genitive gjarðar, plural gjarðar or gjarðir) (strong ō-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *gerdō (“girdle”),^[1][2][3] the source also of Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌳𐌰 (gairda, “girdle”) and Middle Dutch gherde.^[2][4][5] Forms with another ablaut grade are Middle Low German gorde and Middle High German gurt, and with a diminutive suffix gyrðill, Old English gyrdel and Old High German gurtil.^[5][4] The verb gyrða (“to gird”) belongs to the same group.^[6]

Köbler and Lehmann trace it to Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to enclose, fence about”), which Feist and Lehmann also see in Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (gards, “house”), the enclosed place.^[7][5][4]

Cleasby–Vigfússon and Fritzner treat the same spelling also as a form of gerð (“doing, making”), a word from gera; de Vries, Köbler and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon keep that one apart.^{[8][9][10][3][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's first manuscript with the noun is Me II 2, dated 1260–1270, with the spellings gjǫrð, giærð, giarð and gearð;^[12] the next is AM 243 bα fol (1270–1280), with the dative plural giordum.^[13] Cleasby and Vigfússon cite the sense “girdle” from the Konungs skuggsjá,^[14] and in the Vǫluspá the World Serpent is gjǫrð jarðar “the girdle of the earth”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

From a girdle or belt round the body the word passed to the girth that holds a saddle and to the hoop that binds the staves of a tub;^[9][14] Fritzner quotes a tariff for the hoops of a keg and a passage where stirrup-straps and girths broke.^[9][14] In western Iceland it also named a kerchief wrapped round a woman's head.^[14][11] In poetry jarðar gjǫrð and njarðgjǫrð are kennings, the first for the sea.^[16][17]

The word survives as Icelandic gjörð, Swedish gjord and Danish gjord.^[11][18] Falk and Torp and Etymonline take girth from Old Norse,^[6][19] first of a horse's belt around 1300; the Middle English Dictionary sees the influence of girdel in its vowel.^[19][20] De Vries also gives a Sami loan, gierddo.^[10]

Timeline

• 1260–1270 – gjǫrð, giarð in Me II 2.^[12]
• 1270–1280 – giordum in AM 243 bα fol.^[13]
• c. 1300 – English girth “belt around a horse's body”.^[19]
• 1330–1370 – gjǫrð, giorð in WolfAug 9 10 4to.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. a girdle or belt.^[22][14][23]
2. a saddle girth (also sǫðulgjǫrð).^[22][9]
3. a hoop on a tub or keg.^[14][9]
4. a band round something, such as a band across a helmet.^[9][24]
5. a woman's head-cloth, a kerchief.^[14]

Word family

• sǫðulgjǫrð
• megingjarðar
• umgjǫrð
• njarðgjǫrð
• botngjǫrð

Descendants

• Icelandic gjörð^[1]
• Faroese gjørð^[1]
• Norwegian gjord, (dialectal) gjørd, gjuld, gjard, gjort^[1]
• Old Swedish giorþ^[1]
• Swedish gjord^[1]
• Danish gjord^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål gjord^[1]
• Middle English gerth (→ English girth)^[1]

Related words

• gyrða
• gyrðill
• garðr

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 132
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. gjǫrð
4. ^ a b c Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 118
5. ^ a b c 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. 168
6. ^ a b Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. gjord
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 226
9. ^ a b c d e f Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. gjörð
10. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 171
11. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. gjörð
12. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Me II 2
13. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 243 bα fol
14. ^ a b c d e f g Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 202
15. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 340
16. ^ Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1860), Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, Hafniæ: Societas regia antiquariorum septentrionalium, p. 248
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. gjǫrð
18. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. gjord
19. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
20. ^ 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)
21. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. WolfAug 9 10 4to
22. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. gjörð
23. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 199
24. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 122