skorpna

Forms

skorpna weak verb (past tense skorpnaði)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Old Norse skorpinn (“shrivelled”) + -na, a verb made from the adjective.^[3] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon takes the adjective as the past participle of a lost strong verb *skerpa,^[3] de Vries, after Noreen, as a participle belonging with skreppa (“to shrink”).^[4]

The family goes back to Proto-Germanic *skerp- (“to contract, harden”),^[3] and Köbler gives *skerpan.^[5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon places it under Proto-Indo-European *skerb- (“to shrivel”), with Lithuanian skrebti (“to dry up”).^[3] Jóhannesson sets it under a root *(s)qereb(h)- with the verb for “to shrink” and its nasalised relatives.^[6] The noun skorpa (“crust”) belongs to the same family.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only Menota record is in Njáls saga in the manuscript AM 132 fol, dated 1320–1350, with the participle skorpnuð.^[7] Cleasby and Vigfússon quote the passage as húð skorpnuð við eld “skin shrivelled by fire”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used of skin and leather drying and shrinking: Barlaams saga has skin so shrivelled on the bones that every limb could be counted, and a speaker in Fornmanna sögur says skorpnar skór at fœti mér “my shoe is shrinking on my foot”.^[8][2] Impersonally, skorpnar at e-m means that someone is hard pressed or begins to lack something.^[1][9]

The verb lives on in Icelandic skorpna, with the same figurative use,^[10] and in Faroese skorpna and Norwegian Nynorsk skorpna.^[3]

Timeline

• 1320–1350 – skorpnuð in Njáls saga in AM 132 fol.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. to shrivel up, dry up and shrink.^[1][8][9]
2. (impersonal) skorpnar at e-m, one is hard pressed, begins to suffer want.^[1][9]

Descendants

• Icelandic skorpna^[10]
• Faroese skorpna^[3]
• Norwegian Nynorsk skorpna^[3]

Related words

• skorpinn
• skorpa
• skreppa

References

1. ^ a b c d Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skorpna
2. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 554
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skorpa
4. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 499
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. skorpna
6. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 843
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 Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skorpna
9. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 562
10. ^ a b Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 737