hǫfn

hǫfn¹ harbour

Forms

hǫfn f (genitive hafnar, plural hafnir) (strong ō-stem)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the harbour is inherited from Proto-Germanic *habanō (“harbour, haven”),^[1][2] with Old English hæfen (“haven, port”) and Middle Low German havene beside it.^[2][3] De Vries takes the Old English word as a loan from Norse, and notes that the Middle Low German one is recorded only from 1259.^[4]

De Vries, Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and Köbler trace the noun to the root of hafa (“to have, hold”) and hefja (“to lift”), with Latin capiō (“to take, seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”); its first sense would then be “a place that holds, an enclosure”.^[4][3][2] De Vries and Falk and Torp also connect Old High German havan (“pot”).^[4][5] Old Irish cúan (“harbour”) is close in form and sense: Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon sets it beside the Germanic word, and Wiktionary allows an early borrowing between the two.^[3][1]

The sense “holding, tenure of land; pasture” is derived separately by de Vries, Köbler and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, as an i-stem Proto-Germanic *habēniz (“possession”) made to the same verb, with an Old English noun of the same form meaning “possession”.^[4][6][3][7] Cleasby and Vigfússon, like Wiktionary, put it under one head with the harbour.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Viking Age runic inscription carved on the lion at Porto Leone, Piraeus, has i hafn þesi, normalised í hafn þessa “in this harbour”;^[9] Rundata gives it no closer date.^[9] The first dated record is in the Icelandic Homily Book, which ONP dates 1200: veite haɴ góþa hofn þeim er a skipe fara “may he give a good harbour to those who travel by ship”.^[10] In a text of 1212 it is already figurative: þu scyldir stýra mér oc fǿra til hafnar “you were to steer me and bring me to harbour”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Most of ONP's citations mean a harbour, natural or built, with phrases such as taka hǫfn “to make harbour”; from the fourteenth century it also means a safe haven, a refuge.^[10] In religious poetry lífs hǫfn “the harbour of life” is heaven.^[11][12] The Norwegian laws use the word both for the harbour and for grazing land for cattle.^[13]

In the laws jarðar hǫfn is the tenure of land, and the alliterating pair hǫnd ok hǫfn “hand and having” means full power over something.^[8][14] The compound skipshǫfn “ship's crew” is of the same formation in Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon's view.^[3]

Icelandic höfn and Danish havn continue the harbour sense,^[3] and the name of Copenhagen, Kaupmannahǫfn, is a compound of it.^[15] English haven is from the Norse word or directly from Proto-Germanic, by Etymonline's account.^[16] In Scottish Gaelic the loan hamhn “harbour” survives only in place-names such as Portnahaven on Islay.^[17]

Timeline

• 1200 – hofn “harbour” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[10]
• 1200–1225 – hafnar in AM 619 4to.^[18]
• 1212 – fǿra til hafnar “bring to harbour”, figuratively.^[10]
• 1225–1250 – hamnar and homn, with ⟨m⟩, in DG 8 II.^[19]
• 1250 – the harbour in the laws of Grágás.^[10]
• 1375 – “safe haven, refuge”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. a harbour, a port, natural or built.^[10][20]
2. a safe haven, a refuge.^[10]
3. (law) a holding, possession, especially tenure of land.^[8][20][14]
4. pasture, grazing land.^[8][21][13]
5. a ship's crew, as in skipshǫfn.^[20][22]

Word family

• hafnarljós
• hafnartollr
• hafnarmark
• skipshǫfn
• jarðarhǫfn
• leynihǫfn
• skipahǫfn
• kaupmannahǫfn

Descendants

• Icelandic höfn^[1]
• Faroese havn^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk hamn^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål hamn^[1]
• Old Swedish hamn^[1]
• Swedish hamn^[1]
• Danish havn^[1]

hǫfn² cloak

Forms

hǫfn f (genitive hafnar, plural hafnir) (strong ō-stem)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the cloak is inherited from Proto-Germanic *hamnō in de Vries's and Köbler's reconstruction, a derivative of the noun *hamô (“covering, shape”) that also gave hamr (“skin, shape”).^[4][6][1] Wiktionary compares Old Swedish hampn beside hamber.^[1] Hellquist explains the ⟨n⟩ of Swedish hamn (“shape, apparition”) as taken over from the inflection of the old n-stem.^[23]

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon disagrees: he derives the cloak word, like the sense “foetus”, from hafa (“to have”), as something one has on or carries, and thinks a link with the word for skin unlikely, though the Norwegian and Swedish words were probably influenced by it.^[3] Cleasby and Vigfússon also put the foetus under the verb, and Fritzner compares hafandi (“pregnant”).^[8][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fritzner quotes the foetus sense from the Old Icelandic homilies: á enom níunda mánaþe hafnarennar þá kom Joseph meþ kono sínni í Bethleem “in the ninth month of the pregnancy Joseph came with his wife to Bethlehem”.^[14] The cloak is in the kings' sagas: hann tók af sér höfnina ok sveipaði um konunginn “he took off his cloak and wrapped it round the king”.^[14][8]

Semantic evolution

As a garment the word is the same as yfirhǫfn, a cloak worn over the other clothes;^[20][24] poetry lists it with feldr and kápa among the words for a cloak.^[25] Compounds such as hafnarvaðmál and hafnarfeldr name a plain cloth of the kind sold in trade.^[8][26] The foetus sense also gave the phrase taka við hǫfn “to conceive”.^[14][15]

Norwegian hamn means clothing or appearance, and Swedish hamn a shape or ghost.^[3][23]

Meanings

Noun

1. a cloak, an outer garment, the same as yfirhǫfn.^[20][14][24]
2. a foetus; pregnancy.^[20][8][14]

Word family

• yfirhǫfn
• munnshǫfn
• hafnarvaðmál
• hafnarfeldr
• hafnarváð

Descendants

• Icelandic höfn^[1]
• Old Swedish hampn^[1]
• Swedish hamn^[1]