ryðja

Forms

ryðja (singular past indicative ruddi, plural past indicative ruddu, past participle ruddr) (weak class 1 (short stem))^[1] Viking Age Swedish runic infinitive ruþia, ryþia on the bridge and road stones Sö 311, Sö 312, U 101 and U 149.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *rudjaną (“to clear”),^[1][3] the source also of Old English ryddan (“to strip, rob”).^[3][4][5] Orel derives it from Proto-Germanic *reudaną, the verb behind rjóða “to clear”; de Vries, Köbler and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon likewise group it with that verb and with ruð (“clearing”).^[3][4][6][7] Köbler traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *rewdʰ- (“to clear land”), an extension of a root meaning “to tear, dig”.^[8]

Cleasby and Vigfússon thought it had lost an initial ⟨h⟩ and came from hrjóða.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Peterson lists the infinitive on four Viking Age Swedish stones, all of them raised for clearing a road: Hemingr ok Jarlabanki þeir létu braut ryðja ok brúar gera eptir fǫður sinn “Hemingr and Jarlabanki had the road cleared and the bridges built in memory of their father”.^[2][10] These stones are not dated more closely.^[10] In the manuscripts IcePaHC first records the past ruddi in the Icelandic Homily Book, which it dates to 1150.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Clearing woodland for settlement is the sense of the kings' sagas and Landnámabók (ryðja markir “clear forests”); from it come clearing a road, emptying a storehouse, unloading a ship and, in battle, clearing an enemy ship of its crew.^[12][9][13] As a law term it means to challenge members of a jury or court and so clear them out of it (ryðja kvið, ryðja dóm).^[12][14][15] In Vǫluspá men heimstǫð ryðja, leave the world empty.^[16][17]

It survives as Icelandic ryðja, Faroese ryðja, Nynorsk rydja, Swedish röja and Danish rydde.^[7][4] De Vries lists Middle English ruþe and, after Skeat, English rid among its loans, as well as Shetland rodj and Northern Sami ruddit “to clear land”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1150 – ruddi in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[11]
• 1200–1225 – ruddi in the manuscript AM 619 4to.^[18]
• 1250–1300 – ryðja in Vǫluspá in the Codex Regius, GKS 2365 4to.^[19]
• 1276–1300 – ryðja, ruddum in the law codes of Magnus the Lawmender in Holm perg 34 4to.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. to clear land of trees, make it fit for settlement; to clear a road.^[12][14]
2. to clear, empty: a storehouse; to unload a ship; to clear an enemy ship of its crew.^[12][13]
3. (law) to challenge jurors or judges, set them aside.^[12][14]
4. with prepositions: to throw something onto something; to drive away; to clear one's way to a kingdom; to tear up.^[12]
5. (reflexive) to clear one's way, lay about one.^[12][17]

Descendants

• Icelandic ryðja^[1]
• Faroese ryðja^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk rydja^[1]
• Swedish röja^[1]
• Danish rydde^[1]

Related words

• ruð
• rjóða

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
3. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 307
4. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 454
5. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. ryðja
7. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. ryðja
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 504
10. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. U 101
11. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
12. ^ a b c d e f g Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ryðja
13. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. ryðja
14. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 508
15. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 353
16. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 837
17. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 473
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
19. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. GKS 2365 4to
20. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 34 4to