undir

Forms

undir preposition with dative and accusative; adverb^[1][2] Poetry often has the older monosyllable und.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *under (“under; among”),^[4][5] like Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌰𐍂 (undar), Old English under, Old Frisian under, Old Saxon undar and Old High German untar.^[6][5] De Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon explain it as a comparative formation, matched by Latin īnfrā (“below”), īnferus (“lower”) and Sanskrit अधस् (adhás, “below”).^[6][7][4]

Proto-Germanic had merged here a second preposition “among, between”, the word of inter;^[4][8] Wiktionary ascribes the merger to Verner's law.^[4][8] De Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon give the sense “among” an article of its own, saying it coincided in form with the sense “under”, and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks the Icelandic use is probably taken from West Germanic.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

IcePaHC's first text with the word is the First Grammatical Treatise, which it dates to 1150.^[9] Menota's earliest closely dated record is the Norwegian runic inscription N 524 of 1150–1200: Hér er fé fólgit undir steini þessum “here treasure is hidden under this stone”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

With the dative it marks rest beneath something, with the accusative motion to beneath it.^[12][1] Besides place it expresses power and dependence: eiga undir sér “to have in one's power”, undir þeim biskupi “under that bishop”, and “depending on” someone's word.^[1] The laws use it of property in another's keeping and of subjection to the king or the church.^[13] It also means “at the foot of, close to” something higher, which gave farm names such as undir Hrauni and undir Felli.^[14][3] As an adverb it means “underneath”, and dagr er undir “the day is down” is said of sunset.^[14][15]

It continues as Icelandic undir and Faroese undir, and as under in the mainland languages.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 1150 – undir in the First Grammatical Treatise, by IcePaHC's dating.^[9]
• 1150–1200 – undir steini þessum on the Norwegian runic inscription N 524.^[10]
• 1200–1225 – undir, vndir in AM 619 4to and AM 677 4to.^[16][17]

Meanings

Preposition

1. (with dative) under, beneath, below.^[1][2]
2. (with accusative, of motion) under, to beneath; up to; within range of.^[2]
3. at the foot of, close to, under the shelter of (a hill, a wall, an island).^[14][18]
4. under the power or rule of; depending on.^[1][13]

Adverb

1. underneath, below.^[1][19]

Descendants

• Icelandic undir^[4]
• Faroese undir^[4]
• Norn onjder^[4]
• Norwegian Bokmål under^[4]
• Norwegian Nynorsk under^[4]
• Old Swedish undir^[4]
• Swedish under^[4]
• Danish under^[4]

Related words

• undan
• niðr

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. undir
2. ^ a b c Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. undir
3. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 652
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 634
7. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. undir
8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 434
9. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
10. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 524
11. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 524
12. ^ Foote, P. G.; Quirk, R., eds. (1957), Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, London: Nelson / Viking Society (glossary), p. 120
13. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 665
14. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. undir
15. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 496
16. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
18. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 678
19. ^ Gering, Hugo (1915), Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda, 4th ed., Paderborn, p. 183