iða

Forms

iða f^[1][2] ONP records the spellings iða, Iðu, iður, iðunni, íþo and iduna.^[3]

Etymology

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon derives it from Old Norse ið- (“again, back”), the prefix of iðgjald (“repayment”), and compares Old English edwinde and Middle High German itwǣge, both meaning an eddy.^[4] De Vries and Köbler likewise compare the prefix;^[5][6] Etymonline names edwielle (“eddy, whirlpool”) as a parallel.^[7]

The prefix goes back to Proto-Germanic *eþi, with Old English ed-, Old High German ita- and Gothic 𐌹𐌸 (iþ, “but”), and is compared with Latin et (“and”) and Ancient Greek ἔτι (éti, “yet, further”).^[8] Its first sense seems to have been “back, again”, which suits a counter-current.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated citation, of 1325, is from a legend: Com þv til ar oc mo[n]do fiɴa beiɴ oc ꜹsco saman rekit í eína íþo “Go to the river and you will find bones and ashes driven together into one eddy”;^[3] Fritzner cites the same passage from Heilagra manna søgur.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Fritzner defines it as a current that turns back and separates from the main stream of a river, and cites it for fishing places: in the Orkney saga men fished in the eddy beside a tidal race, and Norwegian estate books divide the salmon fishing of an iða.^[9] In Grettis saga Grettir dives under the waterfall, ok var þat torvelt, því at iða var mikil “and it was hard, because the eddy was strong”.^[9] In poetry it is listed among the names for the sea in the þulur.^[10][11]

The word continues as Icelandic iða, Faroese íða, Norwegian Nynorsk ide, Swedish ida and Danish ide.^[4] De Vries derives English eddy and the Orkney and Shetland words from it;^[5] Etymonline is more cautious, calling the Scots ydy of the mid-15th century possibly related.^[7] The Icelandic verb iða “to stir, to move to and fro” is recorded only from the 17th century.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1325 – í eína íþo “into one eddy” in a legend, ONP's first dated citation.^[3]
• mid-1400s – Scots ydy, possibly from the Norse word.^[7]
• 1462 – iða in ONP's second dated citation for the eddy.^[3]
• 1500 – iða in ONP's last dated citation.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. an eddy, whirlpool; a counter-current that turns back from the main stream.^[1][9][13]
2. (poetic) the sea.^[10][11]

Word family

• hringiða
• iðukast
• blóðiða

Descendants

• Icelandic iða^[4]
• Faroese íða^[4]
• Norwegian Nynorsk ide^[4]
• Swedish ida^[4]
• Danish ide^[4]

Usage notes

Iða is also a place-name: Fritzner cites it from Sturlunga saga, and ONP's citation of 1360, hia Iðu, is of the place.^[9][3]

References

1. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. iða
2. ^ 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. iða
3. ^ 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. iða
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. iða
5. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 283
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy)
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. eddy
8. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. ið-
9. ^ a b c d e f Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. iða
10. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 317
11. ^ a b Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1860), Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, Hafniæ: Societas regia antiquariorum septentrionalium, p. 443
12. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 313
13. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 302