skarfr

Forms

skarfr m (genitive skarfs, plural skarfar) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skarbaz (“cormorant”),^[2][1] the source also of Old English scræf (“cormorant”), Old High German scarba and scarbo.^[3][4][5]

The bird is named for its hoarse cry: de Vries compares skrafa (“to chatter”) and hrafn (“raven”),^[5] Falk–Torp derive it from a root for a scraping sound and call it close kin of the raven's name,^[6] and Hellquist calls the root imitative.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's first dated record is in a Norwegian diploma of 1293, DN 4:6, spelled skaruær.^[8] The word was used as a byname in diplomas,^[9][10] and the Viking Age runestone Sö 107 already names a man Skarfr.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The word names the cormorant and the shag;^[10] Cleasby and Vigfússon add that it was also used of other sea birds.^[10] In Old Norse it is mostly a name word: a byname, as in Droplaugarsona saga, and an element of place names such as Skarfaklettr.^[10][13] Fritzner equates it with Latin mergus in a translated text.^[9]

The word passed into Scottish Gaelic as sgarbh (“cormorant”), from the accusative skarf,^[14] and it continues as Icelandic skarfur and mainland skarv.^[5]

Timeline

• Viking Age – the personal name Skarfr (accusative skarf) on the runestone Sö 107.^[11]
• 1293 – skaruær in the Norwegian diploma DN 4:6.^[8]
• 1330–1370 – skarfr in Droplaugarsona saga in AM 132 fol.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. a cormorant or shag.^[15][10][9]

Descendants

• Icelandic skarfur^[1]
• Faroese skarvur^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk skarv^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål skarv^[1]
• Swedish skarv^[1]
• Danish skarv^[1]
• Scottish Gaelic sgarbh^[14]

Usage notes

A second skarfr “end of a beam cut off at a slant” is a separate word, related to skera; the poetic sense “small coin” in Hervarar saga is a loan from Middle Low German scharf.^{[5][16][9][17]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scræf
4. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 457
5. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 484
6. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. skarv
7. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. skarv
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DN 4:6
9. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skarfr
10. ^ a b c d e Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 539
11. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Sö 107
12. ^ Peterson, Lena (2007), Nordiskt runnamnslexikon, 5th ed., Uppsala: Institutet för språk och folkminnen, p. 197
13. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
14. ^ a b Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. sgarbh
15. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skarfr
16. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. skarfr
17. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 502