skyrta

Forms

skyrta f (genitive skyrtu) (weak ōn-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ (“skirt, apron”),^[1] a noun formed from the adjective *skurtaz (“short”).^[1][2] The same noun is Old English scyrte and Middle Low German schorte (“apron”), while Old High German scurz (“short”) continues the adjective.^[3][2] Torp and Falk–Torp take the first meaning to be “a short garment”.^[4][5] De Vries compares skorta and skera (“to cut”).^[3]

Fischer counted it among the loans from Latin through Old English, from an unattested Latin *excurta.^[6] De Vries reports that the view of a loan from Old English or Middle Low German was rejected by Torp and others,^[3] Hellquist also denies a Latin source,^[7] and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon finds hardly any reason to think it borrowed from scyrte.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota first has the word in the Norwegian manuscript DG 8 II of 1225–1250, in the form skyrtu.^[8] Larsson records fcyrtonar in AM 645 4to, among the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[9] In the sagas it is the shirt worn next to the body, as in var í skyrtu einni ok línbrókum “was in his shirt alone and linen breeches”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The skyrta was worn hanging outside the breeches, and Fritzner sets it beside the kirtle (kyrtill).^[11] Falk notes that skyrta and kyrtill could stand for each other in the texts.^[12] In skaldic poetry it names the coat of mail in kennings such as Hamðis skyrta and Svǫlnis skyrta.^[13][14] The saying slíta eigi mǫrgum skyrtum “to wear out few shirts” meant to have a short time left to live.^[10]

The word lives on as Icelandic skyrta, Swedish skjorta and Danish skjorte.^[2][7] English took it as skirt, first “the lower part of a woman's dress”, beside shirt from the Old English word.^[15][3][5]

Timeline

• 1225–1250 – skyrtu in the Norwegian manuscript DG 8 II.^[8]
• 1260–1290 – skyrtu, skyrtuna and other forms in DG 4–7.^[16]
• 1320–1350 – í skyrtu einni in Laxdœla saga in AM 132 fol.^[17][10]
• Early 14th century – English skirt “lower part of a woman's dress”, from the Norse word.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. a shirt worn under the outer clothes and over the breeches, a kind of kirtle.^[18][11][10]
2. (poetic) in kennings, a coat of mail.^[13][19]

Word family

• skyrtublað
• skyrtuermr
• fyrirskyrta

Descendants

• Icelandic skyrta^[1]
• Faroese skjúrta^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk skjorte^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål skjorte^[1]
• Swedish skjorta^[1]
• Danish skjorte^[1]
• Middle English skyrte (→ English skirt)^[1][15][3]

Related words

• skorta
• skera
• skortr

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. skyrta
3. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 510
4. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 455
5. ^ a b Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. skjorte
6. ^ Fischer, Frank (1909), Die Lehnwörter des Altwestnordischen, Palaestra 85, Berlin, p. 51
7. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. skjorta
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
9. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 304
10. ^ a b c d Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 564
11. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. skyrta
12. ^ Falk, Hjalmar (1919), Altwestnordische Kleiderkunde, Kristiania, p. 141
13. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 516
14. ^ Meissner, Rudolf (1921), Die Kenningar der Skalden, Bonn & Leipzig, p. 165
15. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 4–7
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
18. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. skyrta
19. ^ Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. skyrta