steinn

Forms

steinn m (genitive steins, plural steinar) (strong a-stem)^[1] Proto-Norse runic accusative singular staina on the Vetteland and Tune stones, stAin at Eggja; nominative plural stAinAz at Rävsal.^[2] Later runic spellings: stain,^[3] stin^[4] and ztain.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Norse ᛊᛏᚨᛁᚾᚨᛉ (stainaʀ),^[1] from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”).^[6][7] The Proto-Germanic noun survives across the family: Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (stains), Old English stān, Old Frisian stēn, Old Saxon stēn and Old High German stein.^[6][8]

Kroonen explains it as a noun in *-no-* made to the root Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”), the root of Sanskrit स्त्यायते (styā́yate, “to coagulate”); outside Germanic the nearest forms are Proto-Slavic *stěna (“wall”) and Ancient Greek στῖον (stîon, “pebble”).^[6][1] Orel gives the root as *stāi- “to thicken”.^[7]

The Proto-Norse accusative “staina” lost its ending by the time of the Eggja stone's “stAin”.^[2][9]

Cleasby and Vigfússon give the sense “paint” an article of its own and compare English stain,^[10] while de Vries rejects a loan from English,^[11] and Köbler lists “paint” among the senses of this noun.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rundata dates the Vetteland stone, with the Proto-Norse accusative staina, to 160–375/400 and the Tune stone, with the same form, to 375/400–520/530, in both cases after Imer; there the word means a stone set up in memory of the dead.^[13][14] In Old Norse proper it is first dated in Menota's Norwegian runic texts of 980–1015, in the same use: Arnsteinn reisti stein þenna eftir Bjór son sinn “Arnsteinn raised this stone in memory of Bjór, his son”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From “stone, rock” the word came to name things made of or set with stone: a precious stone, a stone in the bladder, and a building of stone.^[15][16] The last gave the phrase setjast í stein “to become a hermit”, from the stone cell or cloister.^[15] The sense “paint” stands beside the verb steina “to paint”, Falk describes both for painted textiles.^[17][18]

The word continues as Icelandic steinn and Faroese steinur.^[18]

Timeline

• 160–375/400 – Proto-Norse staina on the Vetteland stone.^[13]
• 375/400–520/530 – staina on the Tune stone.^[14]
• 650–700 – stAin on the Eggja stone, by Grønvik's dating.^[19]
• 980–1015 – reisti stein þenna “raised this stone” on the Norwegian runestone N 184.^[4]
• 1150 – steinn and steinar in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[20][21]

Meanings

Noun

1. a stone, boulder or rock.^[15][10]
2. a precious stone, a gem.^[15][16]
3. (medicine) a stone in the bladder.^[15][16]
4. paint, colouring.^[15][10]
5. a stone building, a cloister or hermit's cell.^[15][16]

Word family

• steina
• gimsteinn
• brennisteinn
• segulsteinn
• steinligr
• steinsmiðr
• steinsótt
• steinkast
• steintjald

Descendants

• Icelandic steinn^[1]
• Faroese steinur^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk stein^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål stein^[1]
• Swedish sten^[1]
• Danish sten^[1]

Usage notes

Steinn is also a man's name, and the word is a common element of personal names such as Þorsteinn.^[18][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 349
3. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 213
4. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 184
5. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 251
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 472
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 369
8. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 266
9. ^ Noreen, Adolf (1923), Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik, 4th ed., Halle, p. 3
10. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 591
11. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 546
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. steinn
13. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ60
14. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ72
15. ^ a b c d e f g Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. steinn
16. ^ a b c d Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 602
17. ^ Falk, Hjalmar (1919), Altwestnordische Kleiderkunde, Kristiania, p. 44
18. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. steinn
19. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ101
20. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
21. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 312
22. ^ Lind, E. H. (1905–1915), Norsk-isländska dopnamn ock fingerade namn från medeltiden, Uppsala & Leipzig, p. col. 918