skapt

Forms

skapt n (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz (“shaft”),^[2][3] cognate with Old English sceaft, Old Frisian skaft, Old Saxon skaft and Old High German scaft.^[2][4] The spelling with ⟨pt⟩ stands for /ft/, and ⟨skaft⟩ is also written.^[5][1]

Outside Germanic the word is compared with Latin scāpus (“shaft, stalk”), Ancient Greek σκῆπτρον (skêptron, “staff”) and Lithuanian skõpti (“to hollow out with a knife”).^[6][4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon derives the group from an IE root Proto-Indo-European *skēp-, *skōp- (“to cut, carve”), and thinks the verb skafa (“to scrape”) less closely related, since he traces it to *skabh-.^[6] Orel, by contrast, puts the noun with Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scrape”),^[2] and Cleasby and Vigfússon took it to be a “shaved stick”, from the same verb.^[5] Falk and Torp also give the root the sense “to scrape, cut”, so that the shaft is “smoothed wood”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Menota the word is first found as skaftet “the shaft”, with the Norwegian article, in the manuscript DG 8 II of 1225–1250.^[8] Eddic and skaldic poems use it for the spear-shaft, as in rangt skapt in the Hávamál and dýja skapt in the Rígsþula, but these survive in later manuscripts.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

In poetry skapt is above all the shaft of a spear, and by a part-for-the-whole use the spear itself.^[9][10] Cleasby and Vigfússon note that this sense lived on in prose only in the phrase skjóta skapti í móti e-m “to shoot a shaft against someone”, that is, to resist him.^[5][11] The laws use it for a measuring rod: með skapti má jǫrðu skipta “land may be divided with a shaft”.^[12][13] It also named things shaped like a shaft, such as a comet's tail and the beam of a loom;^[14][5] Hellquist thinks the loom term goes back to common Germanic, citing Old English websceaft.^[15][16] The handle of an axe or knife became the ordinary sense in Icelandic.^[5][6]

It continues as Icelandic skaft, with the idiom færa sig upp á skaftið “to grow ever more demanding”.^[17]

Timeline

• 1225–1250 – skaftet “the shaft” in the manuscript DG 8 II.^[8]
• 1270–1280 – skapt in the manuscript AM 243 bα fol.^[18]
• 1275–1300 – skaptit, skapti in the manuscript Holm perg 4 fol.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. a shaft, a pole or stick, especially one thrown; a missile.^[14][20]
2. (poetic) a spear.^[21][10]
3. the handle or haft of an axe, hammer or knife; the shaft of a spear.^[14][5]
4. a shaft-shaped thing: a comet's tail, the beam of a loom, the peak of a helmet.^[14][22]
5. (law) a measuring rod.^[12][13]
6. (law) the penis.^[13]

Word family

• skepta
• skeptingr
• spjótskapt
• øxarskapt
• hamarskapt
• geirskapt
• skapthárr
• skaptkringla

Descendants

• Icelandic skaft^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål skaft^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk skaft^[1]
• Swedish skaft^[1]
• Danish skaft^[1]

Related words

• skafa

Usage notes

The word is the first part of the Icelandic river name Skaptá “shaft river”, from which Skaptafell and the district name Skaptafellsþing are formed.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 331
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. skapt
4. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 483
5. ^ a b c d e f g Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 538
6. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skaft
7. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. skaft
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
9. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 502
10. ^ a b c Falk, Hjalmar (1914), Altnordische Waffenkunde, Kristiania, p. 73
11. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skapt
12. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 562
13. ^ a b c A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. skapt
14. ^ a b c d Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skapt
15. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. skaft
16. ^ Falk, Hjalmar (1919), Altwestnordische Kleiderkunde, Kristiania, p. 11
17. ^ Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 709
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 243 bα fol
19. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 4 fol
20. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 545
21. ^ 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. skapt
22. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 384