skop

Forms

skop n^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a neuter noun of the a-stems, beside skaup of the same meaning.^[2][1] Its cognates are Middle Dutch scop (“mockery”), Old High German scof (“poem, mockery”), Old Saxon scop (“poet”) and Old English scop (“poet, singer”);^[3][4] Köbler sets them under a Germanic stem Proto-Germanic *skup- (“to mock”) of unknown origin.^[5]

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks the first meaning was a comic or mocking poem or play, and ties the word to skopa (“to hop, run”).^[6] Wissmann also starts from the verb, with a chain of senses from “jump” to “mock” and “compose”, and takes the noun as modelled on Latin mimus; de Vries, with Schwarz, finds that improbable, and sees the word among the many in sk- for mockery that belonged to the world of praise poems and mocking poems in the warrior band.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dictionaries cite it from the legendary sagas, in draga skop at e-m “to mock someone”.^[7][8] ONP's article falls in the part of the alphabet that is not yet available, and Menota has no record of the word.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed with mockery and jest: Modern Icelandic skop means “ridicule, teasing humour”.^[6] The West Germanic cognates went towards poetry instead, the Old English word naming the court poet.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. mockery, ridicule;^[1][7] draga skop at e-m to mock someone.^[1][7]

Word family

• skopligr

Descendants

• Icelandic skop^[6]

Related words

• skaup
• skopa
• skeypa
• skoppa

Usage notes

It is a different word from the plural noun skǫp “fate, what is ordained”, which is frequent in the Edda.^[10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skop
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. skop
3. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 498
4. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 281
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skop
7. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skop
8. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 554
9. ^ Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. skop
10. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 953
11. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 517