liggja

Forms

liggja (present ligg, past lá, past plural lágum, past participle leginn), strong verb^[1][2] Proto-Norse optative ligi on the whetstone from Strøm, dated 520/530–560/570 after Imer.^[3] Viking Age runic likR and likr (liggr) and the infinitive ligia.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie”).^[5][6] Most of the old Germanic languages have the same present with ⟨j⟩: Old English licgan, Old Frisian lidzia, Old Saxon liggian and Old High German liggen, while Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan) and Old High German ligan have a present without it.^[7][6] An optative ⟨ligi⟩ is on record on the Strøm whetstone, in the runes of the older period.^[8]

The root is Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down”), also in Ancient Greek λέχος (lékhos, “bed”), Latin lectus (“bed, couch”) and Old Irish lige (“bed”).^[6][9][10] Its causative is leggja (“to lay”).^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Proto-Norse whetstone from Strøm, which Rundata dates 520/530–560/570 after Imer, ends haþu ligi “may it lie still in battle”;^[3] de Vries dates the stone 600–650.^[8] In Old Norse proper the first dated record is the Karlevi stone on Öland, dated to the end of the tenth century, which says of the dead man Folginn liggr … í þessu haugi “he lies hidden … in this mound”.^[13] IcePaHC finds the verb in the Icelandic Homily Book, which it dates to 1150,^[14] and ONP's earliest dated citations are of 1175 and 1177.^[15]

Semantic evolution

ONP orders the senses as lying flat, lying in bed or sick, and lying buried.^[15] Other uses grew from the idea of resting in one place: a ship lies at anchor, a place lies somewhere, a road leads somewhere, and fjords lie under ice.^[1][16] Land “lies to” a church that owns it, as in the Reykholt inventory of 1177, and people “lie under” sin in the Elucidarius of 1175.^[15] With prepositions it came to mean “weigh upon” (liggja á) and “be at stake” (liggja við).^[1][17]

In the laws liggja with an accusative is to have intercourse with a woman, and a penalty “lies on” an offence.^[18] It continues as Icelandic liggja, Swedish ligga and Danish ligge, and the Norwegian phrase ligge nede continues liggja niðri.^[9][19]

Timeline

• 520/530–560/570 – Proto-Norse optative ligi on the Strøm whetstone, by Imer's dating.^[3]
• Late 900s – liggr on the Karlevi stone, Öl 1.^[13]
• 1150 – liggur, liggi and lágum in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[14]
• 1175 – liggia under sin, “be subject to it”, in the Elucidarius.^[15]
• 1177 – ligr “belongs”, of land, in the Reykholt church inventory.^[15]
• 1200 – “lie (flat)” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. to lie, lie down, stay lying.^[15][1]
2. to lie in bed, lie sick;^[15][1] liggja í sárum to lie wounded.^[15][1]
3. to lie buried.^[15][1]
4. to lie at anchor;^[1][16] liggja veðrfastr to be weather-bound.^[1][16]
5. to be situated (of a place); to lead (of a road).^[1][16]
6. to be covered with ice (of fjords and lakes).^[1][20]
7. to belong to (of land); to be subject to.^[15][21]
8. liggja hjá, liggja með: to have intercourse with.^[1][18]
9. liggja á: to weigh upon;^[1][17] liggja við: to be at stake.^[1][17]

Word family

• lega
• lægi

Descendants

• Icelandic liggja^[5]
• Faroese liggja^[5]
• Norwegian Nynorsk liggja^[5]
• Swedish ligga^[5]
• Danish ligge^[5]

Related words

• leggja
• lag
• lǫg

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. liggja
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. liggja
3. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ50
4. ^ Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
5. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 330
7. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 199
8. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 355
9. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. liggja
10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 240
11. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 750
12. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. ligga
13. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Öl 1
14. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. liggja
16. ^ a b c d Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 383
17. ^ a b c Foote, P. G.; Quirk, R., eds. (1957), Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, London: Nelson / Viking Society (glossary), p. 107
18. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 404
19. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. ligge
20. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 257
21. ^ 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. liggja