hár

hár¹ high

Forms

hár^[1] Comparative hæri or hærri, superlative hæstr; the oblique cases often have v or f before a vowel, as in hávir, háfum, definite hávi.^[2] Beside hár the oldest Icelandic manuscripts also write hór, with comparative hære and superlative hæstr.^[3]

Etymology

The adjective for “high” is inherited from Proto-Germanic *hauhaz (“high”).^[1][4] It is the same adjective as Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃 (hauhs), Old English hēah, Old Frisian hāch, Old Saxon hōh and Old High German hōh.^[4][5]

Kroonen derives the Germanic form from Proto-Indo-European *kóuk-o-, and sets beside it a variant with Verner's law, *hauga-, which survives in the mainland forms Swedish hög and Norwegian Nynorsk høg and in the noun haugr (“mound”); outside Germanic he compares Lithuanian kaukas (“bump”).^[4] De Vries and Köbler place it under the root Proto-Indo-European *kew- (“to bend”), with the Lithuanian noun for a hill, kaukaras, among its relatives.^[6][7]

The sound history is not regular: the expected outcome is hór, and de Vries, following Pipping, explains the form with ⟨á⟩ as levelled from the oblique cases.^[6] Jóhannesson likewise derives both forms from one paradigm whose nominative and accusative developed apart.^[8] Marstrander traced the comparative hæri and the superlative hæstr to forms in which ⟨au⟩ became ⟨ā⟩ before ⟨h⟩.^[9]

De Vries cites the runic form ⟨hou⟩ on a sixth-century bracteate from Funen,^[6] and Heidermanns lists a Proto-Norse personal name ⟨houaR⟩ from Denmark under the same adjective.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record in ONP is the Old Icelandic Elucidarius of about 1175, where the word compares heights: Sva sem forþom gek floþ yver heim .xv. foþmom hęra an fioll, sva mon þa eldr brenna fiollom hęre “Just as the flood once went over the world fifteen fathoms higher than the mountains, so fire will then burn higher than the mountains”.^[11] This is ONP's first sense, “high, tall, of a given height”.^[11] The Danish bracteate with ⟨houaR⟩, which Rundata dates to 400–650, carries the word only in a name.^[12][10]

Semantic evolution

ONP orders the senses from physical height (“high, tall”) through depth, as in a fall from a height, and position high above the ground, to rank, importance and loudness.^[11] Zoëga gives the same range: “high” and “tall”, the superlative for the height of a season (meðan hæst væri vetrar “in the depth of winter”), “high, glorious” of feasts, and “loud” of sounds and voices.^[13] Norwegian legal usage adds “long” of a time limit, as in gera stefnu svá háva “to set so long a term”.^[14]

Cleasby and Vigfússon note that the old inflection with v or f (hávir, háfum) gave way in later Icelandic to forms without it (háir, háum).^[2] The word continues as Icelandic hár and Faroese háur.^[6]

Timeline

• 400–650 – the Proto-Norse personal name ⟨houaR⟩ on the Danish bracteate DR IK58.^[12][10]
• 1175 – hęra “higher” in the Old Icelandic Elucidarius.^[11]
• 1192 – í hęra staþ “to a higher place”, of the ibex, in an encyclopaedic text of GKS 1812 4to.^[11]
• 1200 – first records of the senses “of high rank” and “sublime, important”, in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[11]
• 1200–1225 – háfa, hæstum, hærra in the Norwegian manuscript AM 619 4to.^[15]
• 1212 – hárri rǫdd “with a loud voice” in the Dialogues of Gregory.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. high, tall; of a given height.^[11][13]
2. deep, of a fall from a height.^[11]
3. placed high, elevated, lying high above the ground.^[11][16]
4. of high rank, noble, eminent; of God and of the saints.^[11][13]
5. important, sublime; in the superlative, of the greatest feasts.^[11][13]
6. loud, of a voice or sound;^[11][13] hátt “loudly”.^[11][13]
7. (law) long, of a time limit.^[11][14]

Word family

• hæri
• allhár
• jafnhár
• ofhár
• upphár
• hásæti

Descendants

• Icelandic hár^[6]
• Faroese háur^[6]

hár² hair

Forms

hár n (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

The word for “hair” is inherited from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”).^[1][17] Its West Germanic cognates are Old English hǣr, Old Frisian hēr, Old Saxon hār and Old High German hār.^[17][18]

Its further origin is uncertain.^[6][17] The older view, from Detter, connected it with the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”); de Vries prefers a root Proto-Indo-European *ḱer(s)- (“bristle, stiff hair”), with Lithuanian šerys (“bristle”) and the Slavic words for hair and wool.^[6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon also thinks of šerys, which would give an original sense “stiff hair, bristle”, and doubts a link with Latin crēscō (“to grow”).^[17] Wiktionary reports a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *kes- (“to comb”), compared with Old Irish cír (“comb”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Menota the noun is first recorded in two manuscripts of 1200–1225, the Icelandic AM 677 4to with hár and the dative hári, and the Norwegian AM 619 4to;^[19][15] Larsson's list begins with har in Gl I, among the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[20] ONP's first dated passage, of 1262, describes a man's head of hair: harit svart oc sitt, sva at toc a tær honum “the hair black and long, so that it reached to his toes”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

ONP divides the senses into hair on people and animals, collectively or as a single hair, and the hair of the head described by its colour and style.^[11] Set phrases include hold ok hár “flesh and hair” and blása hár af hǫfði “to blow the hair off someone's head”.^[11] Cleasby and Vigfússon note fara ór hárum “to shed the coat”, of animals.^[21] In poetry the Grímnismál tells that the trees were made from the giant Ymir's hair (baðmr ór hári).^[22][23]

The noun continues as Icelandic hár, Faroese hár and the mainland forms Norwegian Nynorsk hår, Swedish hår and Danish hår;^[6] in modern Icelandic it can also mean a blade of grass or a little hay.^[17]

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – hár and hári in the Icelandic manuscript AM 677 4to.^[19]
• 1200–1225 – hár in the Norwegian manuscript AM 619 4to.^[15]
• 1262 – harit svart oc sitt “the hair black and long”, ONP's first dated passage.^[11]
• 1275 – the word in the Gulaþing law (ONP's Gulᴵ).^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. hair, on people or animals, collectively; also a single hair.^[11][13]
2. the hair of the head, described by its colour and style.^[11][21]

Word family

• hárslitr
• hrosshár
• hǫfuðhár
• líkhár
• hærðr

Descendants

• Icelandic hár^[6]
• Faroese hár^[6]
• Norwegian Nynorsk hår^[6]
• Swedish hår^[6]
• Danish hår^[1]

hár³ thole

Forms

hár m (genitive hás, plural háir) (strong i-stem)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the thole is inherited from Proto-Germanic *hanhu- (“stake”), de Vries's form;^[6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and Torp reconstruct *hanha-, Torp with the senses “stake, dogfish”.^[17][24] The original sense was a stake or peg.^[6][24] Outside Germanic it is compared with Sanskrit शङ्कु (śaṅkú, “pointed peg”), which also names a sea creature, and with Welsh cainc (“branch”).^[17][6] Wiktionary gives the comparison with Sanskrit as an alternative to de Vries's account.^[1]

Sperber connected it instead with a Germanic word for a hook, the thole being a hook-shaped peg.^[6] De Vries reads ⟨haha⟩ on the Strøm stone as its accusative singular,^[6] a reading that Rundata's translation does not follow.^[25]

The word was borrowed into Old English as a term for the thole (after Björkman) and, de Vries holds, into Finnish as hanka (“oarlock”).^[6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and de Vries treat the noun for the dogfish, hár⁴, as originally the same word.^[17][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated record is from the Þiðreks saga manuscript of 1287, in a curse on the man who made a pair of tholes: alldri þriviz sa er þessa hae hio os til handa “may he never thrive who cut these tholes for us”.^[11] The Eddic Atlamál has háir brotnuðu “the tholes broke”.^[23]

Semantic evolution

The thole was the peg on the boat's side against which the oar was pulled.^[16][26] Fritzner and Hægstad and Torp record the figurative phrase róa ǫllum hám “to row with all one's oars”, that is, to do all one can.^[16][14] Compounds name parts of the rowing gear and the crew: háreiðar “rowlocks”, hástokkar “gunwale” and háseti “oarsman”, literally “thole-sitter”.^[21] In poetry a ship could be called hádýr “beast of the tholes”.^[21] The word survives in Norwegian Nynorsk hå.^[17]

Timeline

• 1287 – hae “tholes” in a manuscript of Þiðreks saga.^[11]
• 1400 – ollum hꜳm at roa “to row with all the oars” in ONP's text VP.^[11]
• 1412 – sva at brotnudu hlumir ok hair “so that oar-handles and tholes broke” in Vǫlsunga saga.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. a thole, oarlock: the peg on a boat's side that holds the oar.^[11][13][27]

Word family

• háseti
• hástokkr
• háreiðar

Descendants

• Norwegian Nynorsk hå^[17]

hár⁴ dogfish

Forms

hár m (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the dogfish is inherited from Proto-Germanic *hanhu- (“stake”), originally the same word as hár³ (“thole”) according to de Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon.^[6][17] Torp gives the Germanic noun the senses “stake” and “dogfish” together.^[24] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon supposes that the fish was named after its body shape or its fins, likened to a stake, and points out that Sanskrit शङ्कु (śaṅkú) also names a water creature;^[17] Sperber, cited by de Vries, thought of the hook-shaped teeth.^[6] Lidén collected parallels for a word for a stake becoming a fish name.^[6]

Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain and also reports a derivation from Proto-Germanic *hawwaną (“to hew”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's only dated record, of 1350, is a grammarian's example that sets the dogfish against hár² (“hair”): Har vex a kvíkendvm enn hȧr er fiskr “Hair grows on living creatures, but hár is a fish”.^[11] Cleasby and Vigfússon cite the same passage as Skálda 162.^[21]

Semantic evolution

Fritzner and Cleasby and Vigfússon identify the fish as the spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias, and later Icelandic calls it háfr.^[16][21] In compounds há- marks fish of the shark kind: hákarl “shark”, hámeri “porbeagle”, hámús “rabbitfish”.^[21][17] The word continues in Faroese háur and Norwegian Nynorsk hå, and through a Scandinavian source it gave Dutch haai, from which German and Swedish took their word for the shark.^[17][6]

Timeline

• 1350 – hȧr er fiskr “hár is a fish” in a grammatical treatise (ONP's Gramm¹).^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. the spiny dogfish, a small shark.^[16][13][21]

Word family

• hákarl
• hámeri
• háskerðingr

Descendants

• Faroese háur^[17]
• Norwegian Nynorsk hå^[17]
• Dutch haai^[6]