myki

Forms

myki f^[1] ONP files the word under mykr, since the forms myki and mykr are often ambiguous; it counts myki 15 times, mykinni twice and mykrin once.^[2] Later Icelandic has mykja.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *mukī (“dung”),^[5] a noun Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon reconstructs as *mukjō or *mukjōn.^[4] Torp sets up *muki (“dung”) for this word and mykr, with a by-form *muka in Norwegian Nynorsk mokdunge (“dung heap”).^[6] Old Danish muk or mok points to such a form, from which Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon derives the verb moka (“to shovel”).^[4]

Further connections are uncertain. Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and de Vries compare Latin mūgil (“mullet”), de Vries also ēmungō (“to blow the nose”), and both relate the word to mjúkr (“soft”).^[4][7] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *mewg- (“slick, slimy”).^[1] Cleasby and Vigfússon compared Old English meox (“dung”) and the Gothic word for dung,^[3] and Etymonline calls a link with the Old English word possible.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is mycr in a gloss of 1192 in ONP.^[2][9] Konungsbók of Grágás, of 1250, gives the word in the farm law: Ef maþr dregr myki v́t. oc hefir eigi eyk til “If a man hauls out dung and has no draught animal for it”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word meant animal dung, above all cow dung used as manure.^[4][10] ONP's genre table shows it mostly in the laws, which regulate carting dung onto the fields and taking it from another man's land.^[2][11] Compounds name tools and kinds of dung: mykikvísl “dung fork”, mykireka “dung shovel”, uxnamyki “ox dung”.^[3][10]

It continues as Icelandic mykja, with Faroese and Norwegian relatives,^[4] and English muck, first recorded as Middle English muk in the mid-thirteenth century, comes from a Scandinavian source such as this word.^[8][12]

Timeline

• 1192 – mycr in a gloss of GKS 1812 4to.^[2]
• 1250 – dregr myki v́t “hauls out dung” in Konungsbók of Grágás.^[2]
• 1260–1270 – myki in the Norwegian manuscript Me II 2.^[13]
• mid-13th century – English muk, taken from a Scandinavian source.^[8]
• 1312 – mykín in a manuscript of Heimskringla, as a variant of mykrin.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. dung, manure, especially cow dung.^[2][15][10]

Word family

• mykikvísl
• mykireka
• mykiskán
• uxnamyki

Descendants

• Icelandic mykja^[4]
• Faroese mykja^[4]
• Norwegian Nynorsk myk^[4]
• Middle English muk^[12]
• English muck^[8]

Related words

• mjúkr
• moka

Usage notes

Fritzner notes that myki and mykr fall together in the dative and accusative, so that many records cannot be assigned to one or the other.^[16][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. mykr
3. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 440
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. mykja
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. mykr
6. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 324
7. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 397
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. muck
9. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 234
10. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. myki
11. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 456
12. ^ a b 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. muk
13. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Me II 2
14. ^ a b Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. myki
15. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. myki
16. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. mykr