reisa

Forms

reisa (weak class 1 (long stem))^[1] Proto-Norse rAisido “I raised” on the Ellestad stone (Ög KJ59), with stAinAz.^[2] Viking Age runic past reisti is written risti and raisti on the Norwegian stones.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Norse ᚱᛡᛁᛋᛁᛞᛟ (raisidō),^[1] from Proto-Germanic *raisijaną (“to cause to rise, raise”),^[1][5][6] the causative of Proto-Germanic *rīsaną (“to rise”), which gave rísa.^[5][7][8] It is formed as beita is from bíta.^[9] Its cognates are Gothic 𐌿𐍂𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (urraisjan, “to raise, rouse”), Old English rǣran (“to raise, rear”) and Old High German rēren (“to make fall”).^[5][10]

The West Germanic verbs have ⟨r⟩ from ⟨z⟩ by Verner's law, as one would expect in Norse too;^[5][10] Kroonen finds it unclear why the Norse forms lack it, and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon says that in Norse and Gothic the voiceless ⟨s⟩ won out.^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Proto-Norse form rAisido “I raised” stands beside stAinAz “stone” on the Ellestad stone, dated 520/530–700 by Imer.^[2] In Old Norse proper the word is first dated on Norwegian runestones of 980–1015, in the formula of the memorial stones: Arnsteinn reisti stein þenna eptir Bjór, son sinn “Arnsteinn raised this stone in memory of Bjór, his son”.^[3][11] Cleasby and Vigfússon call reisa stein “to raise a stone” the standing phrase of the runestones.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From raising a stone, a mast or a pole the verb came to mean “build, found” (reisa bœ “set up a farm”, reisa kirkju “build a church”, reisa skip “lay down a ship”) and, figuratively, “start, begin” (reisa ferð “set out on a journey”, reisa ófrið “start a war”).^[13][14] In Christian prose it renders raising from the dead (reisa af dauða), first in the homilies and saints' lives of the late twelfth century.^[15] The laws use it of putting up a pole of insult (níðstǫng) and, as a hunting term, of starting game.^[15][16] In poetry one raises the shield against someone, reisa rǫnd við e-m, “to resist”.^[17]

It continues as Icelandic reisa, Faroese reisa, Swedish resa and Danish rejse.^[10] Middle English reisen is from Norse, the source of English raise, which at first shared many senses with native rear.^[8][18][19]

Timeline

• 520/530–700 – Proto-Norse rAisido on the Ellestad stone, by Imer's dating.^[2]
• 980–1015 – reisti stein þenna “raised this stone” on the Norwegian runestone N 184.^[3]
• 1175 – reisa af dauða “raise from the dead” and “set up” in the oldest Norwegian and Icelandic religious manuscripts.^[15]
• 1180 – stong reisir “raises a pole” in the older Christian law of the Gulathing.^[15]
• c. 1200 – Middle English reisen “raise, set upright, build”, from Norse.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. to rouse or start game, make an animal get up and run.^[15][20]
2. to help someone to their feet; to raise from the dead, bring back to life.^[15][13]
3. to set up, erect: a stone, a mast, a pole, a table; to lay out a net.^[15][20]
4. to build, found or establish: a farm, a church, a ship.^[15][13]
5. to start, begin: a journey, a rising, a war.^[13][14]

Descendants

• Icelandic reisa^[1]
• Faroese reisa^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk reisa^[1]
• Swedish resa^[1]
• Danish rejse^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål reise^[1]
• Middle English reisen (English raise)^[18][19]

Related words

• rísa
• reisn
• ris

Usage notes

A feminine noun reisa “journey; time, occasion” is a late loan from Middle Low German reise, recorded in Norway from 1344 and in Iceland from 1409.^[21][22][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög KJ59
3. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 184
4. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 213
5. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 403
6. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 296
7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 306
8. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 439
9. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. resa
10. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. reisa
11. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 184
12. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 491
13. ^ a b c d Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. reisa
14. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 492
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. reisa
16. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 512
17. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 462
18. ^ 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)
19. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
20. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. reisa
21. ^ Fischer, Frank (1909), Die Lehnwörter des Altwestnordischen, Palaestra 85, Berlin, p. 37
22. ^ Veturliði Óskarsson (2003), Middelnedertyske låneord i islandsk diplomsprog frem til år 1500, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana 43, Copenhagen: Reitzel, p. 307