skor

Forms

skor f (genitive skorar, plural skorar) (strong ō-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“notch, incision”),^[1][2] a noun of the zero grade made to Proto-Germanic *skeraną (“to cut”), the source of skera.^[2][3] Orel gives as cognates Old English scoru (“score, twenty”) and Middle Low German schōre (“fissure”);^[2] Torp adds a Low German adjective meaning “brittle”.^[4][5] The root is Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's first certain record is in Njáls saga in AM 132 fol, of 1320–1350 (skorinni), where Cleasby and Vigfússon cite er þú vatt þá sjau í skorinni “when you killed seven of them in the cleft”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon takes “cut, notch” as the first meaning, from which the others come.^[3] A notch in silver showed whether a coin was pure (hvítr í skor, þola skor);^[8] notches cut on a tally stick counted the men owed for the levy in the Norwegian laws, and so the word came to mean a number: twenty according to Cleasby and Vigfússon, four hundred in an annal Fritzner quotes (en 400 eru í skor).^[9][8][10] In the landscape it is a cleft or ledge in a cliff.^[11] Skapa skor “to cut the notch” means to set terms or bring a matter to a decision.^[12][13]

Old English scoru “twenty” is a loan from Norse, and through it English score.^[14][6] The word lives on as Icelandic skor, Faroese skor and Norwegian Nynorsk skor, meaning a cleft or ledge,^[5][3] and it is said to have passed into Manx and Scottish Gaelic, though Cox finds the Gaelic sgor “notch” as likely to come from Scots.^[5][15]

Timeline

• 1320–1350 – skorinni “in the cleft” in Njáls saga in AM 132 fol.^[7]
• late Old English – scoru “twenty”, from the Norse word.^[14][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. a notch, incision, score.^[11][16]
2. a rift or ledge in a rock or precipice.^[11][8]
3. a notch on a tally stick.^[8][9]
4. a set number, twenty or four hundred.^[8][10]
5. a troop, a crowd.^[12][5]

Word family

• skora
• bergskor
• hellisskor
• klettaskor

Descendants

• Icelandic skor^[3]
• Faroese skor^[5]
• Norwegian Nynorsk skor^[3]
• English score^[14]

Related words

• skera
• skar
• skurðr

Usage notes

The word should not be confused with skór (“shoe”) or skǫr (“edge, rim”), which share its spelling in many sources.^[5][17]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 346
3. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skor
4. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 454
5. ^ a b c d e f de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 499
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. score
7. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
8. ^ a b c d e f Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 554
9. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 581
10. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skor
11. ^ a b c Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skor
12. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 561
13. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 397
14. ^ a b c Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org, p. s.v. score
15. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. sgor
16. ^ A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. skor
17. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 512