snípa

Forms

snípa f (genitive snípu), weak n-stem^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *snipōn (“snipe”),^[3] a bird name shared with Old Saxon sneppa, Middle Low German sneppe and Old High German snepfa.^[4][5][6] De Vries explains the name from the bird's narrow bill: the root meant “pinch, squeeze”, as in the Norwegian dialect verb Norwegian Nynorsk snipa (“to snap, pinch”), and the word stands beside snapa; he adds that words of this kind, coloured by feeling, often vary their vowels irregularly.^[7] In Old English the bird was called snīte, of another origin.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded only in the compound mýrisnípa “moor snipe”, among the poetic names for birds in the Snorra Edda manuscripts.^[9][10][11]

Semantic evolution

The word lives on in Icelandic snípa “snipe”,^[12] and in Norwegian, where snipa also means a beak;^[7] Swedish snipa is a long narrow boat, and Orkney and Shetland have snippo and snippek.^[7] The MED takes Middle English snipe probably from Old Norse, comparing mýrisnípa, and Etymonline traces the English bird name snipe, from the early 14th century, to the same compound.^[13][8]

Timeline

• Early 14th century – English snipe.^[8][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. a snipe (only in mýrisnípa, the common snipe).^[1][14]

Word family

• mýrisnípa

Descendants

• Icelandic snípa^[12]
• Norwegian Nynorsk snipa^[7]
• Middle English snipe^[13]
• English snipe^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 575
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. snīpa
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *snipō-
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sneppa
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. snepfa
6. ^ a b Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 523
7. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 525
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 441
10. ^ Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1860), Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, Hafniæ: Societas regia antiquariorum septentrionalium, p. 589
11. ^ Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. mýrisnípa
12. ^ a b Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 767
13. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
14. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. mýrisnípa