hǫggva

Forms

hǫggva (strong)^[1] Viking Age runic preterite hiu “cut” in carvers' signatures, as on Ög 186.^[2] Norwegian runic past participle haukuin on N 413,^[3] infinitive hokoa on N 564.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *hawwaną (“to hew, strike”),^[1][5] cognate with Old English hēawan (“to hew”), Old Frisian hāwa, Old Saxon hauwan and Old High German houwan; no Gothic form is recorded.^[6][7][8] Hellquist reconstructs a Proto-Norse stage with ⟨ggw⟩ and cites the runic Swedish form ⟨haukua⟩.^[9]

The root is Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂- (“to strike, forge”),^[1] found in Lithuanian kauti (“to forge; to strike”) and Latin cūdō (“to strike, beat”).^[6][7][10] de Vries also compares Tocharian A ko- (“to kill”), after van Windekens.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Viking Age carvers signed their runestones with the preterite, as in anun × hiu × siþu “Ônundr cut the side” on Ög 186.^[2] The Norwegian stone N 413, dated by Menota to 1100–1150 and by Rundata to the 11th century, has the past participle haukuin in the sense “slain”, of the man in whose memory the stone was raised.^[3][11] N 564, from about 1180, uses it of cutting timber for a church.^[12] In ONP the first dated manuscript record, of 1200, is the sense “slaughter”: griþungar minir oc alí foglar (eru) hǫgnir “my oxen and fatlings are killed”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Cleasby and Vigfússon note that hǫggva is to strike with an edged weapon, slá and drepa with a blunt one.^[8] ONP's senses run from striking and attacking through felling trees and cutting, beheading, killing and slaughtering, to hacking to pieces, the bite of a snake and opening a vein.^[13] The historical works and family sagas lead the record.^[13] The noun hǫgg “blow” is derived from it.^[7]

It continues as Icelandic höggva, Swedish hugga and Danish hugge.^[7][9] de Vries traces Middle English haggen and dialect English hag to it, after Björkman.^[10]

Timeline

• Viking Age – hiu “cut” in the carver's signature on Ög 186.^[2]
• 1100–1150 – haukuin “slain” on the Norwegian runestone N 413.^[3]
• 1179–1181 – hokoa “to hew (timber)” on the runic inscription N 564.^[4]
• 1200 – hǫgnir “slaughtered” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[13]
• 1212 – hoggvin “slain” in the Norwegian Homily Book.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. to strike, hew with an edged weapon; to attack.^[13][14]
2. to ward off a blow.^[13]
3. to fell trees, cut, clear.^[13][14]
4. to behead.^[13][14]
5. to kill, cut down.^[13]
6. to slaughter cattle.^[13][14]
7. to hack to pieces, smash.^[13][14]
8. to hew into shape, carve.^[15]
9. of a snake or boar: to bite, strike.^[13][14]
10. (medicine) to open a vein.^[13]

Word family

• hǫgg
• halshǫggva
• fóthǫggva
• handhǫggva
• strandhǫgg
• banahǫgg

Descendants

• Icelandic höggva^[1]
• Faroese høgga^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk hogga^[1]
• Old Swedish hugga^[1]
• Swedish hugga^[1]
• Old Danish huggæ^[1]
• Danish hugge^[1]

Related words

• hey

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 186
3. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 413
4. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 564
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 153
7. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. höggva
8. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 309
9. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. hugga
10. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 280
11. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 413
12. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 564
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. hǫggva
14. ^ a b c d e f Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. höggva
15. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 297