spik

Forms

spik n (genitive spiks, plural spik) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *spiką (“bacon, fat”),^[1][2][3] the source also of Old English spic (“bacon, lard”), Old Saxon spek and Old High German spec.^[2][3] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon reconstructs Germanic Proto-Germanic *spĭka- beside Proto-Germanic *spikka-, with the doubled consonant of the West Germanic forms.^[4]

Further connections are uncertain.^[4] Orel identifies it with the Sanskrit word for “buttock, hip”,^[3] which de Vries and Torp also compare, together with a Sanskrit verb meaning “to grow fat”;^[5][6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, more cautiously, derives it perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *spēy- (“to thrive, swell”), the root of spánn and spaði.^[4] Kroonen sets up a pre-form Proto-Indo-European *spig-o-.^[2] The Danish, Swedish and Nynorsk words may have been taken from Middle Low German spek rather than inherited.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's record of the word is a Norwegian law manuscript, Holm perg 34 4to of 1276–1300, with eight instances of spik.^[7] The laws regulate the sharing of stranded whales: Fritzner quotes the rule that a whale must be halft hvárt spik ok rengi “half blubber and half flesh”, and finnanda spik, the finder's share of the blubber.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Where the West Germanic words meant bacon or lard, the Norse word was used of the fat of seals and whales, and most of its records are in the laws on stranded whales and in charters.^[2][8][9] Compounds name the fat by its animal: selspik, hvalspik.^[9] Modern Icelandic spik means fat in general and the layer of fat under the skin of seals and whales.^[4] De Vries notes the word in the Northern Isles, Orkney spick and Shetland spik.^[5]

Timeline

• 1276–1300 – spik in the Norwegian law manuscript Holm perg 34 4to.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. blubber, the fat of seals and whales.^[10][9][8]

Word family

• spikfeitr
• spikhvalr

Descendants

• Faroese spik^[1]
• Icelandic spik^[1]

Related words

• spiki

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 467
3. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 365
4. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. spik
5. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 534
6. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 512
7. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 34 4to
8. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. spik
9. ^ a b c d Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 582
10. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. spik