skalli

Forms

skalli m (weak an-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skallô (“skull”).^[1][2] Köbler lists Old Norse skoltr beside it under the same etymon.^[2]

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, Hellquist and de Vries put it with skel (“shell”), skál (“bowl”) and skjall (“membrane”) under Proto-Indo-European *skel- (“to split”), and compare Old English sceallan (“testicles”) and Old High German scolla (“clod”).^[3][4][5] Hellquist also allows, after Noreen, an ablaut relation with Swedish skulle (“skull”) and skult.^[4] Torp compared Latin calvus (“bald”) instead,^[6] and Falk and Torp kept the noun for “skull” apart from the adjective for “bald”, which Hellquist rejects.^[4] For Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon the first sense was “skull”, from which “bald head” and “bare ground” developed.^[3]

It was borrowed as Middle English scalle (“scurf”), and also into Irish.^[5] The Gaelic sgall (“baldness”) is also from it, while a loan into Finnish kallo (“skull”) is doubtful.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's first record is skalla in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 51, dated 1200–1280.^[7] In the sagas the word is used of a bald man's bare head: sé ek á skalla þeim hinum mikla “I see on that great bald head” in Egils saga.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The bare head could stand for the man himself, as in the address stíg upp, skalli! “go up, baldhead!”, translating the Vulgate's ascende calve.^[8][10] Cleasby and Vigfússon add the thick end of a hammer.^[10] In poetry the word means a bald head or a bald person, and skalli is also a giant's name in the þulur.^[11]

It continues as Icelandic skalli, which adds the sense “bare patch of ground”,^[3] and as Swedish skalle “skull”.^[4] Etymonline takes the English skull probably from Norse skalli, but notes that its early use in the south-west points rather to a Dutch or Low German source.^[12]

Timeline

• 1200–1280 – skalla in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 51.^[7]
• 1320–1350 – skalli and skalla in Egils saga in AM 132 fol.^[9]
• c. 1200 – sculle, the English skull, probably from Norse.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a bald head, the bare crown of the head.^[13][8][10]
2. a bald person, also as a term of address.^[8][11]
3. the thick end of a hammer.^[10]

Word family

• skalla
• skǫllóttr

Descendants

• Icelandic skalli^[1]
• Faroese skalli^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk skalle^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål skalle^[1]
• Swedish skalle^[1]
• Danish skalle^[1]

Related words

• skoltr
• skel
• skál
• skjall

Usage notes

Skalli is a giant's name in the þulur.^[14][3] It is also a byname, as in Skalla-Grímr.^[10][15] On Swedish runestones it appears as a man's name.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skalli
4. ^ a b c d Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. skalle
5. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 482
6. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 461
7. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 51
8. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skalli
9. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
10. ^ a b c d e Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 536
11. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 501
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skalli
14. ^ 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. skalli
15. ^ Lind, E. H. (1905–1915), Norsk-isländska dopnamn ock fingerade namn från medeltiden, Uppsala & Leipzig, p. col. 592
16. ^ Peterson, Lena (2007), Nordiskt runnamnslexikon, 5th ed., Uppsala: Institutet för språk och folkminnen, p. 197