skór

Forms

skór m (strong a-stem)^[1] Genitive skós, dative and accusative skó; the older plural is skúar (genitive skúa, dative skóm), later skór.^[2][3] The oldest Icelandic manuscripts write the accusative plural ſqua;^[4] AM 619 4to has Sqvar and ſcvár.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skōhaz (“shoe”),^[1][6] a word common to the Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐍉𐌷𐍃 (skōhs), Old English scōh, Old Frisian skōch, Old Saxon skōh and Old High German scuoh.^[7][8] It has no certain match outside Germanic.^[9][10][11]

Lehmann and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon derive it, with a ⟨k⟩ suffix, from the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu- (“to cover”), seen also in skjól (“shelter”) and Latin obscūrus (“dark, covered”);^[8][9] de Vries takes the shoe to have been first a plaiting of bark and later of leather.^[12] Feist and Hellquist connect it instead with Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐍅𐌾𐌰𐌽 (skēwjan, “to go”).^[7][11] Wiktionary's Proto-Germanic entry calls the derivation from “to cover” dubious and suggests Proto-Germanic *skehaną (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *skek- (“to jump”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's first records are the plural Sqvar and ſqva in AM 619 4to and skúa in AM 677 4to, both dated 1200–1225; the dump gives no passage.^[5][13] Larsson lists ſqua in the Icelandic Homily Book among the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the shoe of a person the word names a horseshoe;^[2][3] Cleasby and Vigfússon think the early horseshoe was a low shoe covering the hoof rather than a nailed iron.^[2][3] It also names the metal tip of a scabbard, as in dǫggskór.^[2] In Hávamál a curse wishes on a man that skór er skapaðr illa “the shoe be badly made”.^[14]

In the Gulaþing law a man was adopted into a kindred by stepping into a shoe: sá skal fyrst í skó stíga, er mann leiðir í ætt “he who leads a man into the kindred shall step first into the shoe”.^[15][16]

Icelandic keeps skór, Faroese has skógvur, and the mainland languages sko.^[12] De Vries traces Finnish kuova and Northern Sami skuova to the Norse word.^[12]

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – Sqvar and ſcvár in AM 619 4to, and skúa in AM 677 4to.^[5][13]
• 1200–1250 – skóinn in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 52.^[17]
• 1210 – skónum in the IcePaHC text JARTEIN, by its dating.^[18]
• 1225–1250 – skoenn in DG 8 II.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. a shoe.^[3][2]
2. a horseshoe.^[3][20]
3. the metal tip of a scabbard.^[2]

Word family

• skóa
• skæði
• skósmiðr
• skósveinn
• hestskór
• dǫggskór
• húðskór
• járnskór
• aurskór

Descendants

• Icelandic skór^[1]
• Faroese skógvur^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk sko^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål sko^[1]
• Swedish sko^[1]
• Danish sko^[1]

Related words

• skjól

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 556
3. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skór
4. ^ a b Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 302
5. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 257
8. ^ a b Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 340
9. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skór
10. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. sko
11. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. sko
12. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 499
13. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
14. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 948
15. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skór
16. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 581
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 52
18. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
19. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
20. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 562