vængr

Forms

vængr m (genitive vængjar, plural vængir) (strong i-stem)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is not certain.^[1][2] It is probably inherited from Proto-Germanic *wēingijaz (“wing”),^[1] a word made to Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”), the root of vindr (“wind”).^[1][3] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon starts from the Germanic root for blowing seen in Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌰𐌽 (waian, “to blow”), Old High German wājan and German wehen,^[4] and Hellquist likewise sets it with the root “to blow”.^[5]

The word is found only in North Germanic, as Hellquist notes.^[5] Old Swedish vinge and Danish vinge differ from it in the stem vowel, while Swedish dialects also have väng.^[1][5]

Cleasby and Vigfússon took vega (“to move, swing”) as its root word.^[6] The UT Indo-European Lexicon files it under Pokorny's root Proto-Indo-European *wengʰ- (“bent”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's first records are from 1200–1225, in the manuscripts AM 619 4to (vængia, vęngium) and AM 677 4to (vǽngi).^[8][9] Cleasby and Vigfússon quote AM 677 4to for þessa tvá vængi “these two wings”.^[6] Larsson finds it also in the Icelandic Homily Book, among the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The bird's wing is the first sense; in the Eddic Vafþrúðnismál the wind is said to come from a being's wings: af hans vængjum kveða vind koma.^[11][6] Cleasby and Vigfússon note the phrase heyra e-ð undir væng “to hear something under the wing”, that is, to hear it whispered.^[6] Norwegian charters use it for a wing or annex of a building, especially of a church.^[12][13] In church inventories it names side hangings of the altar, which Falk explains as a rendering of Middle Low German vlogel (“wing”).^[14]

The word continues as Icelandic vængur, Faroese vongur and Nynorsk veng, which also means a cabin on a boat.^[4][15] English wing, first wenge in the late 12th century, is from the Old Norse word and replaced Old English feðra “wings”.^[2][3][5]

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – vængia in AM 619 4to and vǽngi in AM 677 4to.^[8][9]
• late 12th century – Middle English wenge, from the Norse word.^[2]
• 1270–1290 – vǽngina and vǽngjum in AM 519 a 4to.^[16]
• 1525 – vængir fyrir háaltari, hangings for the high altar, in an Icelandic charter.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. a wing of a bird.^[13][17]
2. a wing or annex of a building, especially of a church.^[13][12]
3. a side hanging of an altar.^[12][14][6]

Word family

• vængbrotinn
• vængknúi
• arnarvængr

Descendants

• Icelandic vængur^[1]
• Faroese vongur^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk veng^[1]
• Swedish vinge^[1]
• Danish vinge^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål vinge^[1]
• Middle English wenge^[1][3]
• English wing^[2]

Related words

• vængi
• vindr

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 671
4. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. vængur
5. ^ a b c d Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. vinge
6. ^ a b c d e Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 719
7. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. vængr
8. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
9. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
10. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 372
11. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 627
12. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. vængr
13. ^ a b c Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vængr
14. ^ a b c Falk, Hjalmar (1919), Altwestnordische Kleiderkunde, Kristiania, p. 223
15. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. veng
16. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 519 a 4to
17. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 753