kirkja

Forms

kirkja f (genitive kirkju, plural kirkjur) (weak jōn-stem)^[1] kyrkja, in Norwegian charters.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old English cirice.^[1][3][4][5] Fischer counts it among the loans of the English church language and compares compounds such as hǫfuðkirkja with their Old English models.^[3] Jóhannesson, after Hellquist, allows that Old Frisian may also have played a part.^[4]

The Old English word, like Old Saxon kirika and Old High German kirihha, goes back to Proto-West Germanic *kirikā,^[1][6] taken from Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kuriakón, “the Lord's house”), from κύριος (kúrios, “lord”).^[5][7] Jóhannesson thinks the Greek word probably reached West Germanic through Gothic.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Oddernes stone in Norway, dated 980–1015 in Menota, records the building of a church: aRintr karþi kirkiu þesa “Eyvindr made this church”.^[8][9] In manuscripts ONP's first dated record is from the Icelandic Homily Book, 1150, also of the building.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The church building comes first in ONP and has most of its citations; from it the word passed to the church as a legal body and seat of a clerical office, to the Christian congregation and faith, and figuratively to a person as a church.^[10] Fritzner adds the bishopric, heilǫg Niðaróss kirkja “the holy church of Niðaróss”.^[11] Hægstad and Torp give halda kirkju “to serve as priest at a church”.^[12] The laws sort churches by rank, from the hǫfuðkirkja of each district to the fjórðungskirkjur.^[13] ONP's genre table shows the word most in charters, religious and historical works and the laws.^[10]

It continues in Icelandic kirkja, Swedish kyrka and Danish kirke.^[5] The northern English and Scots kirk, from about 1200, comes from a Scandinavian source such as this word.^[14]

Timeline

• 980–1015 – kirkiu þesa “this church” on the Oddernes stone N 210.^[8]
• 1150 – kirkio in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[10]
• 1150–1250 – kirkiu in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 A.^[15]
• 1200 – Nicolaus kirkja, a church named after its saint.^[10]
• 1212 – the church as a legal body and as the Christian congregation, in the Norwegian Homily Book.^[10]
• c. 1200 – English kirk, from a Scandinavian source.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. a church, a church building.^[10][16][17]
2. a church as a legal body and the seat of a clerical office; a bishopric.^[10][11]
3. the Christian congregation, the Church as a whole.^[10][11][12]

Word family

• kirkjugarðr
• kirkjudagr
• kirkjufriðr
• kirkjuganga
• kirkjubœr
• dómkirkja
• hǫfuðkirkja
• fylkiskirkja
• fjórðungskirkja
• heraðskirkja

Descendants

• Icelandic kirkja^[1]
• Faroese kirkja^[1]
• Norn kirka^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk kyrkje^[1]
• Swedish kyrka^[1]
• Danish kirke^[1]
• English kirk^[14]

Usage notes

The verb kyrkja “to strangle” is a different word, from kverk “throat”.^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. kyrkja
3. ^ a b Fischer, Frank (1909), Die Lehnwörter des Altwestnordischen, Palaestra 85, Berlin, p. 52
4. ^ a b c Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 1048
5. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. kirkja
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. kirkja
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cirice
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 210
9. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 210
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. kirkja
11. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. kirkja
12. ^ a b Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 219
13. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 342
14. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. kirk
15. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 A
16. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. kirkja
17. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 325
18. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 341
19. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. kyrkja