með

Forms

með preposition with dative and accusative, also adverb; variant meðr^[1][2] Viking Age Swedish runic spellings: miþ on Sö 9,^[3] meþ on Sö 173^[4] and miR on Ög 111.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *midi (“with”),^[6] which Kroonen writes *medi.^[7] The same preposition is Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌸 (miþ), Old English mid, Old Frisian mith, Old Saxon mid and Old High German mit, beside longer forms such as midi and miti.^[7][8][9]

Outside Germanic it is compared with Ancient Greek μετά (metá, “among, with, after”) and Avestan mat (“with”),^[8][9] and with Sanskrit स्मत् (smát, “together with”).^[6][8] Kroonen explains it as an Indo-European adverb, a locative in ⟨-i⟩ of a root noun Proto-Indo-European *met- or *medʰ-, and connects it with miðr (“middle”);^[7] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon hesitates between *me-ti and *me-dhi,^[10] and Wiktionary derives the Germanic form from Proto-Indo-European *meth₂.^[6]

The longer meðr took its ⟨-r⟩ from viðr, according to Falk and Torp.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record is runic: on the Swedish inscription Öl SAS1989;43, dated 950–1100 by Imer, Þórr gæti hans með þeim hamri “may Thor protect him with that hammer”.^[11] The Swedish stone Ög 111, of the early eleventh century, has the sense of company: dreng þann, er var með Knúti “the valiant man who was with Knútr”.^[5] In the manuscripts ONP's first citation is of 1192: þat ár ero .xiii. tungl. meþ .xii. monoþom oc heiter þat embolismus “that year has thirteen moons counting with its twelve months, and it is called embolismus”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Cleasby and Vigfússon distinguish the cases: with the dative með means going in company with someone, with the accusative bringing or fetching him, so that hann kom með honum is “he came along with him” but hann kom með hann “he brought him”.^[1][13] From company the dative sense spread to help, means and manner (með harðfengi “by hardihood”), to inclusion and to “among, between”.^[2][12] With names of places it means “along, by”, as in riðu þeir nú upp með ánni “they now rode up along the river”.^[14][12] The form meðr is common in Stjórn and the legendary sagas but not in the classical writers.^[1]

The preposition continues as Icelandic með, Swedish med and Danish med.^[10][9] Falk and Torp note that most Danish and Norwegian compounds in med- are German or follow German models, the native one being medfærd, from meðferð.^[9]

Timeline

• 950–1100 – með þeim hamri on the inscription Öl SAS1989;43, by Imer's dating.^[11]
• early 11th century – var með Knúti on the runestone Ög 111.^[5]
• 1150 – með in the First Grammatical Treatise, by IcePaHC's dating.^[15]
• 1192 – meþ, ONP's first manuscript citation.^[12]
• 1197 – með on the Norwegian runic inscription N 171, dated June 1197 with a query.^[16][17]
• 1200–1225 – með, męð in AM 619 4to.^[18]

Meanings

Preposition

1. with the dative: with, together with, in the company of.^[12][2]
2. with the dative: with a group, retinue or army.^[12]
3. with the dative: equipped with, full of, consisting of.^[12]
4. with the dative: by means of, using; in a given manner.^[2][19]
5. with the dative: including.^[2][12]
6. with the dative: among, between.^[12][2]
7. with places: along, by; up (a river).^[12][14]
8. with the accusative: bringing, carrying, fetching.^[1][2]

Adverb

1. as well, besides, with it.^[20]

Word family

• meðferð

Descendants

• Icelandic með^[6]
• Faroese með^[6]
• Norwegian Nynorsk med^[6]
• Old Swedish mæþ^[6]
• Swedish med^[6]
• Danish med^[6]
• Norwegian Bokmål med^[6]

Related words

• miðr
• meðr

References

1. ^ a b c d Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 419
2. ^ a b c d e f g Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. með
3. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Sö 9
4. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Sö 173
5. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 111
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 360
8. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 380
9. ^ a b c d e Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. med
10. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. með
11. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Öl SAS1989;43
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. með
13. ^ Möbius, Theodor (1866), Altnordisches Glossar, Leipzig: Teubner, p. 293
14. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. með
15. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
16. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 171
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 171
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
19. ^ 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. með
20. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 283