ketill

Forms

ketill m (genitive ketils, plural katlar) (strong a-stem)^[1] Dative katli.^[2][3] The oldest Icelandic manuscripts write ketill and ketıllınn,^[4] and Norwegian texts kætil.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *katilaz (“kettle”),^[6][7] with Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (katils), Old English cietel, Old Frisian zetel, Old Saxon ketil and Old High German kezzil.^[6][7] Germanic took the word over from Latin in the Roman period;^[8][9] Finnish kattila was borrowed from it very early.^[8][9]

The Latin model is uncertain.^[8][1] Orel names Latin catillus (“small dish”), the diminutive of catīnus (“bowl, dish”);^[6] de Vries notes that the diminutive has no Romance continuants, and that Brüch explained the ⟨l⟩ of the Germanic word for the ⟨n⟩ of the plain Latin noun by the influence of tool names in ⟨-ila⟩.^[8] Jóhannesson, Fischer and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon allow either Latin word.^[10][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's earliest citation is from AM 645 4to, dated 1220: konor ij. scyldo bera heim ketil ór hver “two women were to carry a kettle home from the hot spring”.^[13] In a text of 1237 a man has all the kettles set up: hann skilldi lata upp alla katla oc lata nokcot af slatre i hværn kætil “he was to set up all the kettles and put some of the slaughter-meat in each kettle”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

In the old language ketill named every kettle or cauldron; modern Icelandic keeps it for a kettle of a particular shape and calls a large pot pottr.^[2] The early laws used it in an ordeal: a woman took hot stones from a boiling kettle, taka í ketil, while a man carried hot iron.^[2][14][13] Christian texts use it for a baptismal font and for the pit of hell.^[13][15] The phrase e-m fellr allr ketill í eld “one's whole kettle falls into the fire” means that someone is dumbfounded.^[2][13]

Icelandic ketill also means a deep hollow or crater.^[12] English kettle has both an Old English and a Norse source in the MED;^[16][9][10] Hellquist and Jóhannesson take the English form from Norse,^[16][9][10] while Etymonline derives it from Old English.^[17]

Timeline

• 1220 – ketil in AM 645 4to.^[13]
• 1225–1250 – kætil and katla in DG 8 II.^[5]
• 1249 – taka í ketil, the ordeal, in the Frostaþing law.^[13]
• 1310 – ketil in the Norwegian diploma DN 3:88.^[18]
• 1340 – the pit of hell.^[13]
• 1387 – “baptismal font”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. a kettle, a cauldron or large pot.^[13][3][2]
2. (law) the kettle of the ordeal, in taka í ketil.^[13][2][14]
3. (Christian) a baptismal font.^[13]
4. (Christian) the pit or abyss of hell.^[13][15]

Word family

• ketiltak
• ketilfang
• katlari
• eirketill
• járnketill
• steinketill
• skírnarketill
• búðarketill
• grautarketill

Descendants

• Icelandic ketill^[1]
• Faroese ketil^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk kjele^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål kjele^[1]
• Old Swedish kætil (→ Swedish kittel)^[1]
• Old Danish kiæthæl (→ Danish kedel)^[1]
• Middle English ketel (→ English kettle)^[16]

Usage notes

Ketill was a very common man's name in Iceland and Norway, and Katla a woman's.^[19][20][2] As the second part of names it was contracted to -kell (Áskell, Arnkell, Þórkell).^[2][8] De Vries thinks the name more likely refers to a kettle-shaped helmet than to a sacrificial cauldron, following Wessén, and notes its borrowing into Old English and Old Irish.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 337
3. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ketill
4. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 183
5. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
6. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 211
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d e f de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 307
9. ^ a b c d Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. kittel
10. ^ a b c Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 1048
11. ^ Fischer, Frank (1909), Die Lehnwörter des Altwestnordischen, Palaestra 85, Berlin, p. 14
12. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. ketill
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. ketill
14. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 341
15. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. ketill
16. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018), p. s.v. ketel
17. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. kettle
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DN 3:88 A
19. ^ Rygh, Oluf (1901), Gamle Personnavne i norske Stedsnavne, Kristiania, p. 174
20. ^ Lind, E. H. (1905–1915), Norsk-isländska dopnamn ock fingerade namn från medeltiden, Uppsala & Leipzig, p. col. 592