skrapa

Forms

skrapa (weak class 2)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skrapōną (“to scrape, scratch”),^[1][2] the source of Old English scrapian and Middle Low German schrapen.^[3][4][5] It stands in ablaut with the strong verb screpan (“to scratch”).^[4][6][7] Wiktionary analyses this as Proto-Germanic *skrepaną (“to scratch”) with Proto-Germanic *-ōną and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”); Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon likewise relates it to skera and skarpr.^[1][6]

De Vries and Köbler give the senses “clatter, chatter” an article of their own, and de Vries compares them with Baltic and Slavic words for rattling and noise.^[4][2] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon treats them as one word, used both for the act of scraping and for the sound it makes.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota first records the present participle skrapannda in AM 243 bα fol, of 1270–1280; the dictionaries cite the phrase skrapandi hagl “rattling hail” from this text.^[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

Fritzner puts the sound first: things rattle and clatter, as broken bones in the skin, or coins, of which peningar skrapa lítt í pungi “the coins rattle little in the purse” says there are few.^[9] From there it came to mean idle chatter, a synonym of skrafa.^[9][11] The sense “scratch out, erase” is used of writing and of sins: an úskrapat bréf is a letter with no erasures.^[10][9]

In modern Icelandic skrapa means to scrape, to rattle, to come loose at the joints, and to chatter.^[6] English scrape comes partly from the Norse verb, as Torp, Hellquist and Etymonline hold.^[7][5][12]

Timeline

• 1270–1280 – the participle skrapannda in AM 243 bα fol, the first record.^[8]
• 1290–1310 – skrapa in Holm perg 17 4to.^[13]
• Early 13th century – English scrapen “to erase”, partly from Norse.^[12]
• 1628 – skrapir in the Icelandic corpus.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. to clatter, rattle.^[15][9][11]
2. to prate, chatter.^[15][9]
3. to scrape or scratch out, erase.^[15][10][16]

Word family

• skrap

Descendants

• Icelandic skrapa^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk skrapa^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål skrape^[1]
• Swedish skrapa^[1]
• Danish skrabe^[1]
• English scrape^[12]

Related words

• skrápr
• skera
• skarpr
• skrafa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. skrapa
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *skrapōn
4. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 501
5. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. skrapa
6. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skrapa
7. ^ a b Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 456
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 243 bα fol
9. ^ a b c d e f Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skrapa
10. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 556
11. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 563
12. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. scrape
13. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 17 4to
14. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
15. ^ a b c Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skrapa
16. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 399