verða

Forms

verða (singular past indicative varð, plural past indicative urðu, past participle orðinn) (strong)^[1] Viking Age runic spellings: infinitive uerþa, past uarþ, plural urþu.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *werþaną (“to come about, become”),^[1][4] a strong verb found throughout Germanic: Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐌰𐌽 (wairþan), Old English weorþan, Old Frisian wertha, Old Saxon werthan and Old High German werdan.^[4][5] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”),^[1][6] the root of Latin vertō (“to turn”), Lithuanian versti (“to turn”) and Proto-Slavic *vьrtěti (“to turn, spin”).^[5][7] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon traces it further to *wer- (“to turn”), with other extensions in verpa (“to throw”) and ríða (“to twist”).^[7]

The sense “to turn” became “to become” in Germanic, as English “turn” can mean “become”;^[4][8] Kroonen suggests that Old High German wurst (“sausage”) keeps the older “to twist”.^[4][8] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks the senses “to perish” and “to lose” come from a form with a lost prefix, as in Gothic “frawairþan” “to perish”.^[7]

The past participle is “orðinn”, later also “vorðinn”, and the old poets alliterate the verb as if it began with a vowel.^[9] Kroonen explains the t of the West Norse descendants, as in Norwegian Nynorsk verta with past “vart”, from the word-final þ of the past tense.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is on the Rök runestone in Östergötland, dated to the 800s in Rundata, in the line on urþi fiaru, normalised án yrði fjǫr, “was deprived of life”.^[10] Many later Viking Age stones use the verb for dying, as Hann varð austr dauðr “he died in the east”.^[3] The Norwegian Galteland stone (980–1015) says of Bjórr Sá varð dauðr í liði “he died in the host”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The oldest records already show the verb with an adjective or participle as predicate, “to become, get”, most often verða dauðr “to die”, and with a past participle as a passive auxiliary, as on Ög 93: er varð hǫggvinn “who was cut down”.^[13][14] Beside this, the verb means “to happen, take place” and, with a dative, “to befall someone”; with an infinitive it expresses necessity, verð ek nú flýja “now I must flee”.^[14][9] Lexicon Poeticum gathers the poetic uses, including the predicate sense “to become”.^[15]

The verb continues as Icelandic verða and Faroese verða, as Norwegian Nynorsk verte, Swedish varda and archaic Danish vorde.^[7][8][4]

Timeline

• 800s – on urþi fiaru “was deprived of life” on the Rök runestone.^[10]
• 980–1015 – Sá varð dauðr “he died” on the Galteland stone in Norway.^[11]
• 1150–1250 – verði and verðr in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 B.^[16]
• 1200–1225 – verða, orðit, orðinn in AM 677 4to.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. to happen, come to pass, arise.^[14][9]
2. with a dative, to befall someone.^[14][9]
3. to happen to be, be found somewhere.^[14][18]
4. with an adjective, noun or participle, to become;^[14][15] verða dauðr “to die”.^[14][15]
5. with a past participle, forming the passive: verða fundinn “to be found”.^[14][19]
6. with at and an infinitive, must, have to.^[14][19]
7. verða á brottu, verða úti to go away;^[14] verða úti also to die of exposure.^[14]

Word family

• Verðandi

Descendants

• Icelandic verða^[1]
• Faroese verða^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål vart^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk verta^[1]
• Old Swedish værþa^[1]
• Swedish varda^[1]
• Old Danish warthæ^[1]
• Danish vorde^[1]

Related words

• urðr
• verðr
• varða

Usage notes

Separate words of the same spelling are a weak verb verða “to deserve, earn”, made from verð “worth”,^[7][18] a weak verb “to destroy, kill” in Atlamál,^[20][21] and a feminine noun verða for the bulwarks of a ship, which may be an error for varta.^[9][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
3. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 30
4. ^ a b c d e f Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 581
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 457
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. verða
8. ^ a b c Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. varda
9. ^ a b c d e Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 695
10. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 136
11. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 184
12. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 184
13. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 93
14. ^ 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. verða
15. ^ a b c Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 605
16. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 B
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
18. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. verða
19. ^ a b Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 524
20. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 1104
21. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 655
22. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 606