sœmiligr

Forms

sœmiligr adj^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Old Norse sœmr + -ligr, from the adjective meaning “fitting, becoming”; Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon names Icelandic sæmur and sæmilegur together.^[2][3] The adjective is from Proto-Germanic *sōmiz,^[3] and corresponds to Old Saxon sōmi (“fitting”);^[4][2] the verb sœma “to honour; to befit” and the noun sœmd “honour” are made from it.^[2] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon relates the group to sómi “honour” and the root of samr “same”, the first sense being “what fits together”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota first dates the adjective in the Old Norwegian manuscript DG 8 II (1225–1250), with the forms sœmelect and the superlative sœmelegazt.^[6] Fritzner quotes from the King's Mirror þessi íðrótt er sœmilig at kunna hverjum konungsmanni “this skill is honourable for every king's man to know”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Fritzner separates “honourable, bringing honour” from “handsome, fine”, the second said of gifts and of church goods such as a chalice or a mitre.^[7][1] In the laws it also means “of rank”, of the highest men of the king's household, and “proper, fit for use”, of weapons.^[8] In skaldic verse it occurs mostly in Christian poems.^[9] Menota's records are mostly Norwegian.^[10][11]

It continues in Icelandic sæmilegur and Faroese sømiligur.^[2]

Timeline

• 1225–1250 – sœmelect in DG 8 II.^[6]
• 1250–1300 – sømelegt, sømelegre in Holm perg 6 fol.^[10]
• 1270–1280 – sœmilegr in AM 243 bα fol.^[12]
• 1275–1300 – the nominative sœmilegr in Holm perg 4 fol.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. honourable, bringing honour.^[1][7]
2. becoming, fitting, proper.^[14][15]
3. fine, handsome, costly: sœmiligr kaleikr, a costly chalice.^[1][7]
4. (law) of high rank, distinguished.^[8]

Descendants

• Icelandic sæmilegur^[2]
• Faroese sømiligur^[2]

Related words

• sœmr
• sœma
• sœmd
• sómi

References

1. ^ a b c d Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. sœmiligr
2. ^ a b c d e f Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. sæma
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. sœmr
4. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 577
5. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. sómi
6. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
7. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. sœmiligr
8. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 630
9. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 560
10. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 6 fol
11. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 4–7
12. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 243 bα fol
13. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 4 fol
14. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 618
15. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 637