lágr

Forms

lágr adj (comparative lægri, superlative lægstr)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *lēgaz (“low”),^[3] which Kroonen reconstructs as the u-stem *lēgu- because of the ja-stem forms in West Germanic.^[4] Its relatives are Old Frisian lēch (“low”), Middle Low German lēge, Middle Dutch lage, Dutch laag and Middle High German læge (“low, flat, slight”);^[4][5][6] Old English and Gothic have no cognate.^[4][5][6]

Kroonen and Orel explain it as a lengthened-grade adjective made to the verb *ligjaną (“to lie”), the source of liggja, so that the first meaning was “lying (low)”.^[4][5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon compares Latvian lēzns (“flat”), Lithuanian lúožas (“lodging of grain”) and an Old Church Slavonic verb meaning “to creep”, and sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *lēǵʰ-, perhaps an old variant of the Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- of the verb “to lie”;^[7] de Vries gives the same Baltic and Slavic forms after Pokorny.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first dated in the Icelandic Homily Book, which ONP dates to 1200, in a figurative sense: þa er þat allt lágt oc lítet “then it is all low and slight”, of human praise of the Virgin set beside the praise of the angels.^[8] In the same book the comparative is used of rank: en legre “the lower one”.^[8] The literal sense “short” is dated 1220 in AM 645 4to, where a man is described as meþal maþr at véxti. svát hann má hvartki þykia hór ne lagr “a man of middling size, so that he can seem neither tall nor short”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

ONP orders the senses as physical lowness or shortness, low position, and low voice, with lágt “quietly” the commonest phrase in the last sense.^[8] Zoëga and Baetke add the figurative “humble, of low birth, slight”, which is in fact the sense of the oldest dated records;^[1][10] idioms such as bera lágt hǫfuð “to hang one's head” and bera lægra hlut “to come off worse” carry the figure further.^[1][2] Most of ONP's citations are from religious works.^[8]

The word lives on as Icelandic lágur, Faroese lágur, Norwegian Nynorsk låg, Swedish låg and Danish lav.^[6][7] Because Old English has no such adjective, the English word low (Middle English lah, late twelfth century) is taken to be a loan from Old Norse.^[11][4][6]

Timeline

• 1200 – lágt oc lítet “low and slight” in the Icelandic Homily Book, by ONP's dating.^[8]
• 1200–1225 – lága, lǽgra and lágt in AM 619 4to.^[12]
• 1220 – lagr “short” of a man's stature in AM 645 4to.^[8][9]
• 1287 – first dated record of the sense “low-lying”.^[8]
• late 12th century – Middle English lah, the ancestor of English low.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. low, low down; of the sun, low in the sky.^[1][13]
2. short, of a shaft or of a person's stature.^[1][8]
3. low-lying, of land.^[8][2]
4. humble, of low birth or rank, of little worth.^[1][10]
5. low, quiet, of the voice;^[8][1] lágt quietly.^[8][1]

Word family

• lágamessa
• lágasǫngr
• láglendi
• lágliga
• lágligr
• lágmæltr
• lágraustaðr
• lágskeptr
• lágtalaðr
• lágvaxinn

Descendants

• Icelandic lágur^[3]
• Faroese lágur^[3]
• Norwegian Nynorsk låg^[3]
• Norwegian Bokmål lav^[3]
• Swedish låg^[3]
• Danish lav^[3]
• Middle English lah^[11]
• English low^[11]

Related words

• lægð
• lægja
• liggja

Usage notes

As a nickname it appears in Þórðr hinn lági and Steinólfr hinn lági.^[13][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. lágr
2. ^ a b c d Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 376
3. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 330
5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 244
6. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 344
7. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. lágur
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. lágr
9. ^ a b Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 194
10. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 359
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. low
12. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
13. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. lágr