troða

Forms

troða (irregular strong)^[1] Present treð, treðr (older trøðr), past trað, past plural tráðu, past participle troðinn;^[2][3] Modern Icelandic past tróð.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *trudaną (“to tread”),^[1][4][5] with the same ⟨u⟩ as Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (trudan), while West Germanic has ⟨e⟩: Old English tredan, Old Frisian treda, Old Saxon tredan, Old High German tretan.^[6][7][8]

Feist explains the Norse and Gothic ⟨u⟩ as the zero grade of an aorist-present, with the full grade in West Germanic.^[7] Orel follows Osthoff in deriving it from *dru-t-, an extension of Proto-Indo-European *dreu- (“to run”);^[4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon mentions the same proposal, a participle *druto-, but notes that it does not explain the inflection, and also considers a shift between the strong-verb classes.^[9] Wiktionary sets up a root aorist with singular *tred- and plural *trud-.^[1] Hellquist calls the derivation disputed and still obscure.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's oldest dated texts with the verb are the Norwegian Homily Book, AM 619 4to, with the participle troðet, and the Icelandic AM 677 4to, both of 1200–1225;^[11][12] Larsson finds the participle tropner (= troðnir) in one of the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[13] In the Codex Regius of the Eddic poems, of 1250–1300, the Vǫluspá has troða halir helveg “men tread the road to Hel”.^[14][15]

Semantic evolution

From “to tread, to walk on” the verb came to mean “to trample, to tread down”, and figuratively to treat with contempt (troða e-n undir fótum).^[3][16] Fixed phrases include troða stafkarls stíg “to go begging” and troða járn “to walk on hot iron” in the ordeal.^[17][16] Treading something down gave “to stuff, to cram”, already in the poetry (i hanzka troþet “stuffed into a glove”).^[15][3] The middle troðask means “to throng, to push forward”.^[3][18]

The verb continues as Icelandic troða and Faroese troða, Norwegian Nynorsk trå and Swedish tråda.^[9] Icelandic has formed the noun troðningur “trampling; a path; a crowd” from it.^[9]

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – troðet in the Norwegian Homily Book, AM 619 4to.^[11]
• 1200–1225 – troða in AM 677 4to.^[12]
• 1250 – troði in the text IcePaHC calls THETUBROT.^[19]
• 1250–1300 – troða halir helveg in the Vǫluspá of the Codex Regius, GKS 2365 4to.^[14][15]
• 1250–1300 – trað and troðen in Holm perg 6 fol.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. to tread, to walk on;^[3][15] troða skó to wear out shoes.^[3][15]
2. to trample, to tread down; figuratively to oppress, to treat with contempt.^[16][3]
3. to cram, to pack, to stuff into something.^[3][16]
4. to stuff something with something (troða belginn lyngvi).^[3]
5. troðask: to throng, to crowd upon one another.^[3]

Word family

• traðk

Descendants

• Icelandic troða^[1]
• Faroese troða^[1]
• Norwegian trå^[1]
• Old Swedish troþa^[1]
• Swedish tråda^[1]
• Danish tråde^[1]

Related words

• trǫð
• treðja

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 641
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. troða
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 410
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ 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. 376
7. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 286
8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 352
9. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. troða
10. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. tråda
11. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
12. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
13. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 333
14. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. GKS 2365 4to
15. ^ a b c d e Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 1045
16. ^ a b c d Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 663
17. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. troða
18. ^ Möbius, Theodor (1866), Altnordisches Glossar, Leipzig: Teubner, p. 441
19. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
20. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 6 fol