hafr

Forms

hafr m (genitive hafrs) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *hafraz (“billy goat”),^[2][1] cognate with Old English hæfer (“he-goat”).^[2][3] De Vries adds an East Franconian “haberling” “yearling he-goat” and the German dialect bird name “Habergeiß”.^[4]

Outside Germanic the word matches Latin caper (“he-goat”), Ancient Greek κάπρος (kápros, “wild boar”) and, with a voiced initial, Old Irish gabor (“goat”), from a European Proto-Indo-European *kap-ro-.^[2] Kroonen points out that the alternation of *kapro- with Proto-Celtic *gabro- and the vowel *a, which was no phoneme in Proto-Indo-European, may mean a non-Indo-European origin.^[2] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon reports that some connect it with an Old Indic word for “penis”, so that it first meant a male animal,^[5] and Torp put it with a root “to mount”, which he also saw in hœfir “breeding bull”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Proto-Norse dative plural ⟨hAborumz⟩ may stand on the Stentoften stone, dated 520/530–700 after Imer, where Rundata's alternative reading is niu habrumz, niu hangistumz “nine bucks, nine stallions”.^[7] In Old Norse proper, Menota's earliest record is hafrenom in the manuscript DG 8 II of 1225–1250.^[8] ONP's first dated citation is from the Grágás manuscript of about 1250, on gelding: sva scal fara vm hafra et sama “the same shall be done with he-goats”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word kept its one sense, the male goat.^[9] It is frequent in the laws and in learned prose, where Barlaams saga sets the hǫfrum oc kiðium “he-goats and kids” on the left hand as against the sheep and lambs.^[9] In poetry the goats that draw Þórr's chariot are hafrar, and Þórr is hafra dróttinn or hafra njótr “lord” or “user of the goats”;^[10][11] hafr unnar “goat of the wave” is a kenning for a ship.^[10][11]

Icelandic hafur and Faroese havur continue it.^[5][4] It was borrowed into Finnish as kauris and into Sami.^[4]

Timeline

• 520/530–700 – perhaps Proto-Norse hAborumz “to bucks” on the Stentoften stone, by Imer's dating.^[7]
• 1225–1250 – hafrenom in the manuscript DG 8 II.^[8]
• 1250 – ii. vetrir hafrar “two-year-old he-goats” in Grágás (GrgKonᴵᴵ).^[9]
• 1275 – hofrum oc kiðium in Barlaams saga (BarlA).^[9]
• 1320–1350 – hafr, hafrinn in the Njáls saga manuscript AM 132 fol.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a billy goat, he-goat, buck.^[9][13]

Word family

• alihafr
• geldhafr
• graðhafr
• kjarnhafr
• tréhafr

Descendants

• Icelandic hafur^[1]
• Faroese havur^[1]

Usage notes

Hafr was also a man's name, common in Norway and found early in Iceland;^[14][15] Lind records men of the name from the late tenth century.^[14][15] Cleasby–Vigfússon and Egilsson enter a separate plural hafrar “oats”, which they find hardly in old writers.^[16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 198
3. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
4. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 201
5. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. hafur
6. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 73
7. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR 357
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
9. ^ 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. hafr
10. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 219
11. ^ a b Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 385
12. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
13. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. hafr
14. ^ a b Rygh, Oluf (1901), Gamle Personnavne i norske Stedsnavne, Kristiania, p. 125
15. ^ a b Lind, E. H. (1905–1915), Norsk-isländska dopnamn ock fingerade namn från medeltiden, Uppsala & Leipzig, p. col. 358
16. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 231
17. ^ Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1860), Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, Hafniæ: Societas regia antiquariorum septentrionalium, p. 286