nema

nema¹ to take

Forms

nema (singular past indicative nam, plural past indicative námu, past participle numinn) (strong)^[1]

Etymology

The verb for “take” is inherited from Proto-Germanic *nemaną (“to take”),^[1][2][3] a strong verb of the fourth class, cognate with Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman), Old English niman, Old Frisian nima, Old Saxon niman and Old High German neman.^[4][2][5] It is usually traced to Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to allot, take”), the root of Ancient Greek νέμω (némō, “to deal out”) and Latin numerus (“number”), with Latvian ņemt (“to take”) the closest match in sense;^[6][5][2] Wiktionary explains the Germanic sense from a middle “to allot to oneself”, and reports that Kroonen follows Kortlandt in another derivation, from *h₁em- (“to take”).^[1] De Vries describes Trier's view that the group began with the sense “fence, enclosure”.^[5]

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and Seebold explain some of the senses from lost prefixes: “learn” as in Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (ganiman), “deprive” as in Old English beniman.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first dated record, from the Icelandic Homily Book of about 1200, has the sense “learn”: Enge þeirra hafþe a bók numet “none of them had learned from books”.^[7] A runic stick from Bergen, N A39 of 1250–1325, has the same sense: ek vil nema af því rúnar “I want to learn runes from it”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Cleasby and Vigfússon note that taka had become the general word for “take”, leaving nema to special uses.^[9] The chief of these are “to take away, remove”, as in nema blóð “to let blood”;^[7][10] “to take land and settle it”, the nema land of the settlement of Iceland;^[7][10] nema konu “to carry off a woman”;^[7][10] “to touch, strike”; and nema staðar “to stop”.^[7][10] The mental senses “to hear, understand” and “to learn” are dated from about 1200.^[7] In Eddic poetry the preterite with an infinitive means “began to”: inn nam at ganga “he began to go in”.^[10][11]

Icelandic nema now means chiefly “to learn”, with nemandi and nemi “student”,^[6] and Danish nemme means “to learn, grasp”.^[5][12] Swedish förnimma is a loan from Middle Low German.^[13]

Timeline

• 1200 – numet “learned” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[7]
• 1212 – the sense “hear, understand”.^[7]
• 1220 – nema staðar “to stop”.^[7]
• 1225 – the sense “abolish, remove”.^[7]
• 1250 – nema land “to take land and settle”.^[7]
• 1250–1325 – nema “learn” on the runic stick N A39.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. to take away, remove;^[7] nema blóð to let blood.^[7]
2. to take land, settle it;^[7][14] nema konu to carry off a woman.^[7][14]
3. to learn, study.^[7][15]
4. to hear, understand.^[7][15]
5. to lift up, exalt.^[7]
6. to strike, touch;^[7] nema jǫrð to touch the ground.^[7]
7. nema e-n e-u: to deprive someone of something.^[16][15]
8. nema staðar: to stop.^[14][16]
9. (poetic) in the preterite with an infinitive: to begin.^[10][11]

Word family

• nám
• landnám
• nemandi
• numnast
• næmr

Descendants

• Icelandic nema^[1]
• Faroese nema^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk nema^[1]
• Swedish nimma^[1]
• Danish nemme^[1]

nema² except, unless

Forms

nema^[1]

Etymology

The conjunction “except, unless” has no certain etymology.^[6][5] Most accounts connect it with nefa (“unless”), which Jóhannesson calls the source and finds once in the Stockholm Homily Book; that word matches Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌹 (nibai), Old Saxon neba, Old High German nibu and Old English nefne.^[17][18] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon suggests that this word was reshaped by assimilation of ⟨n⟩–⟨ƀ⟩ to ⟨n⟩–⟨m⟩, or under the influence of the verb meaning “take”.^[6] Old English has nemne beside ⟨nefne⟩ in the same use.^[19][1] Cleasby and Vigfússon took it for the negative né with an older form of ef (“if”).^[9]

Holthausen derived it instead from ⟨ne má (vesa)⟩ “it may not be”, like Old High German ni wāri “unless it were”, a view Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon rejects.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's first records are from about 1200, in the sense “except”: nema ec sǿttak undan at boþa þer “except that I escaped to tell you”, in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[20] Larsson finds it in the oldest Icelandic manuscripts, both with and without a finite verb.^[21]

Semantic evolution

ONP orders the senses “if not, unless”, then “except, apart from”, “nor” after a negative (hvárki … nema), “than” after a pronoun, “but rather” after a negative (nema heldr), and “if not, whether”.^[20] The same range is found in the Eddic poems, as nema geðs viti “unless he knows his mind” in the Hávamál.^[18][22] Icelandic keeps nema “except, unless”, Faroese has neman, and Old Swedish and Old Danish had num.^[6][18]

Timeline

• 1200 – nema “except” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[20]
• 1200 – the sense “but”, after a negative.^[20]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. if not, unless.^[20][14]
2. except, apart from, save.^[20][14]
3. after a negative: nor, or.^[20][10]
4. after a pronoun: other than, than.^[20]
5. after a negative: but, but rather;^[20][14] nema heldr.^[20][14]
6. if not, whether;^[20][14] veit ek eigi nema I do not know but that.^[20][14]

Descendants

• Icelandic nema^[1]
• Faroese neman^[1]