skíð

Forms

skíð n (genitive skíðs, plural skíð) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skīdą (“piece of wood, billet”),^[1] a word for a piece split off a log.^[1][2] Its cognates are Old English scīd, Old Frisian skīd and Old High German scīt (“log”), the source of German Scheit.^[2][3] Orel compares Old Irish scíath (“shield”) and Proto-Slavic *ščitъ (“shield”).^[2][1]

The word belongs with the verb *skaiþaną (“to separate, divide”), the source of Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (skaidan) and Old High German sceidan, from a root Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split”).^[4][1][5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon puts it with Middle High German schīden (“to split, separate”) and Old Saxon ofskīthan, and with Old Norse skeið.^[3] De Vries also relates the poetic skíði “sheath”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota first dates the word in the Codex Regius of the Eddic poems, GKS 2365 4to, of 1250–1300.^[7] There, in Vǫluspá, the Norns skáru á skíði “cut [runes] on a wooden tablet”, where the sense is a flat piece of wood.^[8][9] Larsson lists the word among the oldest Icelandic manuscripts, in the one he calls Pl.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a billet or split piece of wood, especially firewood: men split skíð and carry them to the fire.^[9][11] From a long flat board the word came to mean the ski, usually in the plural, as in fara á skíðum “to go on skis”;^[11][12] Cleasby and Vigfússon note the alliterating legal phrase á skipi eðr skíði “by ship or by ski”.^[9] In skaldic kennings a ship is the ski of the sea or of sea-kings, and a weapon the ski of battle.^[9][13]

The word lives on as Icelandic skíð and Faroese skíð, with modern senses that include the ski, the baleen plates of whales and the slats of a corset.^[3] English ski was taken from Norwegian in 1883, and English skid, of about 1600, is probably from a Scandinavian source akin to it.^[14]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – skáru á skíði in the Codex Regius of the Eddic poems, GKS 2365 4to.^[7][8]
• 1320–1350 – skíð and skíðum in Egils saga and Njáls saga in the manuscript AM 132 fol.^[15]
• 1350 – skíðin in Finnboga saga, by IcePaHC's dating.^[16]
• c. 1600 – English skid, probably from a Scandinavian source.^[14]
• 1883 – English ski, from Norwegian.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. a billet or split piece of wood; firewood.^[11][9][12]
2. a flat piece of wood, a tablet.^[9][13]
3. (mostly in the plural) a ski, snowshoe.^[11][12][17]
4. the lintel of a door.^[11]
5. (poetic) in kennings, a ship or a weapon.^[9][13]

Word family

• skíðahlaði
• skíðaviðr
• skíðaferð
• skíðafang
• skíðfœri
• skíðgarðr
• byrskíð

Descendants

• Icelandic skíð^[1]
• Faroese skíð^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk ski^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål ski^[1]
• Swedish skid^[1]
• Danish ski^[1]

Related words

• skeið
• skíði

Usage notes

The island name Skíð, for Skye, is a separate word of probably Celtic origin.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 341
3. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skíð
4. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 331
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 491
7. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. GKS 2365 4to
8. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skíð
9. ^ a b c d e f g Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 550
10. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 300
11. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skíð
12. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 550
13. ^ a b c Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. skíð
14. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
16. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
17. ^ A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. skíð