skamt

Forms

skamt^[1] Also written skammt;^[2][3] comparative skemmra, superlative skemst.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Old Norse skammr (“short”): the neuter singular of the adjective, used as an adverb.^[2][3][5] Heidermanns lists the adverb with the adjective, beside Old Swedish skamt.^[6]

The adjective continues Proto-Germanic *skammaz (“short”), also the source of Old English sceamm and Old High German scam.^[7][8] Orel calls it of unknown origin and suggests a link with an Avestan word for “little”.^[7] Köbler and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon connect it with Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱem- (“to mutilate; hornless”),^[8][9] but Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon calls this doubtful and offers *sek- (“to cut”) as an alternative.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota files the adverb under skammr, so its record is that of the neuter form: ſcamt is among the forms of the adjective in the Norwegian Homily Book, AM 619 4to, of 1200–1225, and skammt, Skammt in the Icelandic AM 677 4to of the same years.^[10][11] Larsson finds fcamt and fkamt in the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[12] The comparative appears in an Icelandic homily dated 1200 by ONP: the low chant is to be made skemra “shorter” er meɴ coma of lengra til tíþa “when people come from farther to the service”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The adverb is used of space, “a short way, not far” (hann bjó skammt frá Skallagrími “he lived a short way from Skallagrímr”), and of time, “a short while” (skammt frá þessu “a short while after this”, eiga skammt úlifat “to have a short time left to live”).^[2][3] In poetry Finnur Jónsson notes skammt frá Lundi “not far from Lund” and skammt til betra “a short time to something better”.^[14] Hægstad and Torp record skamt as a rare adverb in Norwegian dialects.^[15]

The neuter skammt was borrowed into Middle English as scant “scarce, insufficient”, the source of English scant.^{[5][16][17][18]}

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – ſcamt in the Norwegian Homily Book, AM 619 4to.^[10]
• 1200–1225 – skammt in the Icelandic manuscript AM 677 4to.^[11]
• mid-1300s – Middle English scant, from the Norse neuter.^[18]
• c. 1390 – scant in a Middle English treatise on the Mass, MED's first quotation for the adjective.^[17]
• 1450 – skamt in the text IcePaHC calls ECTORSSAGA.^[19]

Meanings

Adverb

1. a short way, a short distance; not far.^[2][3][20]
2. for a short time; soon (skammt til þess “soon”).^[2][1]

Descendants

• Middle English scant (→ English scant)^[17][18]

Related words

• skammr
• skemma
• skemta
• skǫmmu

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skammr
3. ^ a b c d e Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skammr
4. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 243 bα fol
5. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 482
6. ^ Heidermanns, Frank (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 333
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skammur
10. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
11. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
12. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 296
13. ^ Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. langr
14. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 501
15. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 382
16. ^ Björkman, Erik (1900–1902), Scandinavian Loan-Words in Middle English, 2 vols, Halle: Niemeyer (Studien zur englischen Philologie 7, 11), p. 122
17. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018), p. s.v. scant
18. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. scant
19. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
20. ^ Krause, Todd B.; Slocum, Jonathan, Old Norse Online, Early Indo-European OnLine, Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin