snøggr

Forms

snøggr^[1] An old u-stem adjective: beside the usual snøggr, with i-umlaut, stands snǫggr without it.^[2][3] v appears before a vowel: accusative snøggvan, comparative snøggvari, superlative snøggvastr.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *snawwaz (“bald; quick”),^[6][7][1] from a Proto-Norse ᛊᚾᚨᚷᚹᚢ (*snaggwu), accusative *snaggwian, according to Hellquist.^[8] Its two senses, “short, short-haired” and “quick, sudden”, have been explained in opposite ways.^[6][7] Kroonen takes “shaved, bald” as the first sense and relates snoðinn (“bald, shaved”) and snauðr (“bare, poor”);^[6] Wiktionary and Köbler connect the word with a root meaning “to scrape” (Proto-Indo-European *ksnew-),^[9][1] and Etymonline with Proto-Indo-European *kes- (“to scratch”).^[10][11] Orel, Falk and Torp start from “quick” and derive it from the verb Proto-Germanic *snewaną (“to hasten”), the source of snúa.^[7][12][13] De Vries finds two homonyms hard to believe, while Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon treats “short” and “quick” as two adjectives and thinks one word that split its sense unlikely.^[13][14]

De Vries and Hellquist add English snug and Dutch snugger (“clever”), through a sense line “quick” > “nimble” > “clever”.^[13][8] Hellquist also allows that words of different origin may have merged in this adjective.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's first record is the neuter snøggt, spelled ſnogt, in Njáls saga in AM 132 fol (1320–1350); the neuter serves as an adverb “quickly, soon”.^[15][5] In poetry the poem Geisli has snøggr verki “a work quickly made”, by Cleasby–Vigfússon's reading.^[4][16]

Semantic evolution

The prose uses it for close-cut hair, wool and grass: stutt skegg ok snøggvan kamp “a short beard and a close-cut moustache”, and cattle that bito af allt gras at snøggu “bit all the grass close”.^[17][5] In the laws snøggvar ær are shorn ewes, without wool.^[18][4] Beside it run “sudden, brief” (orrosta hörð ok snøgg “a hard and brief battle”) and the adverbial neuter snøggt “soon”.^[4][5] Icelandic snöggur keeps both senses, and Norwegian snøgg means “quick”.^[14][12] Hellquist derives Swedish snygg (“neat”) from an Old Swedish form of the same word.^[8] Etymonline gives English snug (1590s) as perhaps from a Scandinavian source of this kind.^[10]

Timeline

• 1320–1350 – snøggt in Njáls saga in AM 132 fol.^[15]
• 1330–1370 – snøggt in Finnboga saga in AM 132 fol.^[15]
• 1590s – English snug, perhaps from a Scandinavian source.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. short, close-cut, of hair, wool or grass;^[5][4] bíta at snøggu, to graze close.^[5][4]
2. short-haired, bald, shorn.^[5][17][18]
3. sudden, brief, quick; neuter snøggt as an adverb, soon, quickly.^[5][16]

Descendants

• Icelandic snöggur^[1]
• Faroese snøggur^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk snøgg^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål snøgg^[1]
• Swedish snygg^[8]

Related words

• snoðinn
• snauðr
• snúa

Usage notes

De Vries, Köbler and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon list “short” and “quick” as two adjectives, snøggr 1 and 2;^{[13][3][14][6][1]} Wiktionary and Kroonen treat them as one.^{[13][3][14][6][1]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Noreen, Adolf (1923), Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik, 4th ed., Halle, p. § 424
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. snøggr
4. ^ a b c d e f Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 577
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. snøggr
6. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 461
7. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 357
8. ^ a b c d e Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. snygg
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. snöggr
12. ^ a b Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. snøgg
13. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 527
14. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. snöggur
15. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
16. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 525
17. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. snöggr
18. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 595