kalla

Forms

kalla (singular past indicative kallaði, plural past indicative kǫlluðu, past participle kallaðr) (weak class 2)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *kalzōną (“to call, shout”),^[1][2] a weak verb of the second class.^[1] Its cognates are Old Frisian kella (“to name”), Middle Low German kallen (“to talk, chatter”), Old High German kallōn (“to talk loudly, chatter”) and Old English ceallian (“to call, shout”).^[3][4] Outside Germanic, de Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon compare Lithuanian galsas (“echo”) and the Slavic word for “voice”, and perhaps Middle Irish gall (“fame; swan”).^[5][3] The Baltic and Slavic forms would point to a Germanic stem in ⟨-lz-⟩ and the Irish one to a stem in ⟨-ln-⟩.^[5][3] De Vries finds the second more likely,^[5] while Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon leaves both open and takes the root as Proto-Indo-European *gal- (“to call, cry”), perhaps *gel-.^[3][2]

The Old English verb is recorded only once, in “The Battle of Maldon”, and is usually explained as a loan from Norse;^[6] Holthausen and de Vries also consider that the English word may be Scandinavian, since it is so rare in Old English.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated record is from 1175, in the Old Icelandic Elucidarius (ONP's Eluc674), where it is used in the mediopassive with the sense “to be said, be declared”: of the angels, er þeir kallasc lios “who are called light”.^[7] The sense “to cry out” follows in a text of about 1200 (ONP's Theol15): En þeir kǫlloþo “And they shouted”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

ONP orders the senses from “to cry out, shout” through “to call for, summon, invoke” and “to invite” to “to say, claim, declare” and “to call, name”, the last being by far the most frequent.^[7] With prepositions it gave legal uses, “to lay claim to” (kalla til e-s, kalla á e-t) and “to protest”.^[8][9] A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law lists senses from “summon” and “sue” to “make a claim”.^[10]

The verb continues as Icelandic kalla, Swedish kalla and Danish kalde.^[3][11] English call is from the Norse verb, first recorded in the mid-13th century, though the rare Old English ceallian may have contributed.^[12][6]

Timeline

• 1175 – kallasc “are called” in the Elucidarius.^[7]
• 1200 – kǫlloþo “they shouted” (ONP's Theol15), and calla “to call on” the Virgin for help in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[7]
• 1200–1225 – kallaðr, kallat and kǫllum in the manuscript AM 677 4to.^[13]
• mid-13th century – Middle English callen, from the Norse verb.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. to shout, cry out, call aloud.^[7][8]
2. to call for, summon, send for; to call on, invoke.^[7][8]
3. to invite.^[7]
4. to ask for, demand; with til or á, to lay claim to.^[7][8]
5. to say, assert, declare.^[7][8]
6. to call, name, give a name or nickname to.^[7][8]
7. to consider, reckon (someone or something as something).^[7][14]

Word family

• kall
• kallan
• sannkalla

Descendants

• Icelandic kalla^[1]
• Faroese kalla^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk kalla^[1]
• Swedish kalla^[1]
• Danish kalde^[1]
• Middle English callen^[12]
• English call^[6]

Related words

• kalls

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. kalla
4. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 45
5. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 298
6. ^ a b c Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
7. ^ 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. kalla
8. ^ a b c d e f Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. kalla
9. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 317
10. ^ A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. kalla
11. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. kalla
12. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
14. ^ 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. kalla