skrap

Forms

skrap n (strong a-stem)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a noun from Old Norse skrapa (“to scrape; to rattle”), according to Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, who notes that the same stem names both the act of scraping and the scraping noise.^[3] De Vries and Köbler connect it with the second skrapa, the verb meaning “to make a noise, to chatter”, and with skrópar (“hypocrisy, pretence”).^[4][1]

The verb has cognates in Norwegian Nynorsk skrapa, Swedish skrapa, Danish skrabe, Middle Low German schrapen and Middle High German schraffen, and is related by ablaut to Old English screpan (“to scrape”); Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon traces it to the same root as skera (“to cut”) and skarpr (“sharp”).^[3] Köbler sets up Proto-Germanic *skrapōną (“to scratch”) for the verb “to scrape”.^[5] The UT lexicon files the noun under Pokorny's root Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”).^[6]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries order the senses from a noise to talk and then to worthless things: “clattering”, “chatter, tittle-tattle” and “lumber, trumpery”.^[2][7] Fritzner's quotations show the second sense in a saint's legend, where a man vafðist mjök í veraldligri áhyggju ok skrapi “became much entangled in worldly care and idle talk”, and the third in a list of household goods, trog, byttur ok kirnur ok annat skrap “troughs, tubs and churns and other junk”.^[8] Gröndal lists skrap among the poetic words for chatter and garrulity.^[9]

In modern Icelandic skrap still means a rattling or creaking, noise and romping, nonsense, and refuse.^[10][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. a clattering, rattling.^[2][8]
2. idle talk, chatter, tittle-tattle.^[2][7]
3. lumber, trumpery, scraps: things of more bulk than worth.^[2][8][7]

Word family

• orðaskrap
• skrapeyrir

Descendants

• Icelandic skrap^[10]

Related words

• skrapa
• skrópar
• skera
• skarpr

References

1. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. skrap
2. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skrap
3. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skrapa
4. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 501
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *skrapōn
6. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. skrap
7. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 556
8. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skrap
9. ^ Benedikt Gröndal (1864), Clavis poëtica antiquae linguae septentrionalis, Hafniae, p. 117
10. ^ a b Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 739