kál

Forms

kál n (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old English cawel (“cabbage”),^[1][2][3] a word Old English had taken from Latin caulis (“stalk, cabbage stalk, cabbage”).^[4][3] Fischer lists it among the Latin words that reached Old Norse through Old English.^[5] De Vries finds the source in West Germanic, most likely Old English, but notes Wadstein's view that Old Frisian kāl could also be the donor;^[2] Jóhannesson likewise gives both possibilities.^[6]

The West Germanic words, Old Saxon kōl and Old High German kōl, go back to the same Latin noun,^[4][2] which is compared with Ancient Greek καυλός (kaulós, “stalk”).^[4][3] Hellquist takes the forms of the word to show that cabbage was grown among the Germanic peoples later than, for example, the turnip.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's earliest dated citations are from a manuscript of 1275 (ÓH), in a figurative speech about King Knútr: eða man hann einn etla at eta kal allt a Englandi “or does he alone mean to eat all the cabbage in England?”, and at mer byr fleira innan rifia en kal eitt “that there is more inside my ribs than cabbage alone”, where cabbage stands for weakness and meagre fare.^[8]

Semantic evolution

ONP's main sense is cabbage and, collectively or in the plural, vegetables and pot-herbs;^[8][9] Fritzner adds that it covered all kinds of large-leaved plants and that it renders Latin olera in translations.^[8][9] Because cabbage was poor, meatless food, the word served in figurative speech for weakness or frugality and, disparagingly, for a bad situation that turns out well.^[8] Several sayings rest on this: e-m fellr flesk í kál “bacon falls into one's cabbage”, things go as one wished,^[10][9] deila kálit “to share out the cabbage”, settle something between themselves,^[11] and ekki er sopit kálit þó í ausuna sé komit “the cabbage is not eaten just because it is in the ladle”.^[10] Most citations are in religious works.^[8]

The word lives on as Icelandic kál, also of a ledge in a bird cliff, and Icelandic made from it the verb kála (“to kill”), like Danish gøre kål på “make an end of”.^[3][7] Finnish kaali was borrowed from the Norse word.^[2] Following A. Bugge, de Vries derives the northern English and Scots kale, kail from Old Norse,^[2] while Etymonline treats kale as a variant of the native word for cabbage.^[12] Cox derived Scottish Gaelic càl from it, but the loan is doubted, since the Gaelic word may come straight from Latin.^[13]

Timeline

• 1275 – kal in a figurative speech in the text ONP cites as ÓH.^[8]
• 1300 – kallæ in the manuscript AM 28 8vo.^[14]
• 1340 – let hann frammi vera kal ok graus, of a frugal table, in AugA.^[8]
• 1350 – a cabbage dish against dropsy in a medical text (Med696I).^[8]
• 1365 – græn kaal, rendering the green herbs of Genesis, in Stjórn (Stj¹).^[8][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. cabbage, kale; collectively or in the plural, vegetables and pot-herbs.^[8][15][9]
2. (figurative) poor fare, standing for weakness or frugality.^[8]
3. (derogatory) a bad situation that changes for the better, in sayings about bacon falling into the cabbage.^[8][10]

Word family

• kálgarðr
• kálfræ
• kálmeti
• kálsúpa

Descendants

• Icelandic kál^[1]
• Faroese kál^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk kål^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål kål^[1]
• Swedish kål^[1]
• Danish kål^[1]

Usage notes

Fritzner records kál as a nickname in Norwegian and Icelandic documents, as in Grímr kál.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 297
3. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. kál
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cāwel
5. ^ Fischer, Frank (1909), Die Lehnwörter des Altwestnordischen, Palaestra 85, Berlin, p. 47
6. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 1039
7. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. kål
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. kál
9. ^ a b c d e f Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. kál
10. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 334
11. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 316
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. kale
13. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. càl
14. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 28 8vo
15. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. kál