glitra

Forms

glitra (weak verb, past tense glitraði)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Old Norse glita + -ra, with an ⟨r⟩-suffix.^[3] Köbler sets up Proto-Germanic *glitrōną beside it.^[2] glita belongs with glit (“glitter, brocade”);^[4][5][6] Orel takes it as the zero grade of the strong verb Proto-Germanic *glītaną (“to shine”), which survives in Old Saxon glītan and Old High German glīzan (“to gleam”).^[4][5][6] Köbler traces the Germanic verb to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleyd- (“to gleam”), an extension of the root of words for shining and yellow.^[7][8] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon compares Faroese glitra, Swedish glittra, English glitter and German glitzern.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota first has glitra in Holm perg 6 fol, dated 1250–1300.^[9] ONP's first dated citation, of 1275, shows the sense “to shine, gleam”: haller varar oc herbyrgi er skina oc glitra af gylltum bunaðe “halls and chambers which shine and glitter with gilded furnishing”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

ONP's citations come mostly from romances and historical works, where weapons and gilded rooms glitter: of a shield carried into the sun, þa glitrar hann oc birtir sua at ængi fær igegn seð “then it glitters and shines so that no one can look against it”.^[1] Cleasby–Vigfússon and Fritzner treat it as a by-form of glita.^[10][11] In poetry it is also transitive, with the dative: to make swords flash by raising them.^[12][13] The verb lives on in Icelandic glitra “to sparkle”, which can also mean “to adorn”.^[14][3]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – glitra in Holm perg 6 fol.^[9]
• 1275 – skina oc glitra af gylltum bunaðe in ONP's first dated citation (BarlA).^[1]
• 1287 – glitrar of a shield in the sun (Þiðr).^[1]
• 1300–1350 – glitraði in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 62.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. to glitter, sparkle, shine.^[1][10][11]
2. (poetic) with the dative, to make flash: glitra sverðum upp, to raise swords so that they flash.^[12][13]

Descendants

• Icelandic glitra^[14]
• Faroese glitra^[3]

Related words

• glit
• glita
• glitta

References

1. ^ 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. glitra
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. glitra
3. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. glitra
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 136
5. ^ a b Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton, p. 231
6. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. glit
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. glitra
9. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 6 fol
10. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 204
11. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. glitra
12. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 189
13. ^ a b 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. glitra
14. ^ a b Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 259
15. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 62