viðr

Forms

viðr m (genitive viðar, plural viðir) (strong u-stem)^[1] Proto-Norse widu- in the personal name widugastiz on the Sunde stone.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *widuz (“wood”),^[1][4] a u-stem, with the cognates Old English widu (later wudu), Old Saxon widu and Old High German witu.^[4][5] The later Old English form is the source of the English word wood.^[6]

The Germanic noun matches Old Irish fid (“tree, wood”) and Welsh gwydd, and both go back to Proto-Indo-European *u̯idhu-.^[6][4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, Falk and Torp and Hellquist connect it with a root meaning “to separate”, the root of Latin dīvidō (“to divide”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō, “widow”) and Lithuanian vidùs (“the inside, middle”), and suppose that the first meaning was “boundary forest”;^[6][7][8] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon gives “wood for cutting or splitting” as another possibility.^[6]

The verb viða “to gather wood” is derived from it.^[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The element widu- is found in Proto-Norse in the name widugastiz on the Norwegian Sunde stone, which Rundata dates 375/400–560/570 after Imer.^[2][3] As a common noun it is first dated in manuscripts of 1200–1225: the form with the article viðinum in the Old Norwegian Homily Book, AM 619 4to, and the plural viðir in AM 677 4to;^[10][11] Menota files these under the preposition viðr.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Zoëga and Fritzner give the living tree first, then the forest, felled timber and a ship's mast.^[12][13] The sense “forest” gave the phrase sól gengr til viðar “the sun goes down”, literally “goes to the wood”.^[12][14] In Íslendingabók Iceland is said to have been viði vaxit “grown with wood” between mountain and shore at that time.^[15][14] In the poetry the word is common for the forest and for a single tree, and the Alvíssmál gives viðr as the name of the forest among men;^[16][17] Yggdrasill is æztr viða “the noblest of trees”.^[16][17]

The word lives on as Icelandic viður and Swedish and Danish ved;^[6][8] Hellquist notes the sense “forest” in Swedish place-names such as Tiveden.^[8]

Timeline

• 375/400–560/570 – Proto-Norse widugastiz, a personal name, on the Sunde stone, by Imer's dating.^[2]
• 1200–1225 – viðinum in the Old Norwegian Homily Book, AM 619 4to.^[10]
• 1200–1225 – the plural viðir in AM 677 4to.^[11]
• 1200–1250 – the accusative plural viðu in NRA norr fragm 52.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. a tree.^[12][13]
2. a forest, wood.^[12][15]
3. felled trees, timber, wood; a log or beam.^[12][13]
4. a mast.^[12][13]

Word family

• viða
• viðarmark
• viðarhǫgg
• viðarrif
• viðarbyrðr
• viðarfang
• viðkǫstr
• rekaviðr
• mjǫtviðr

Descendants

• Icelandic viður^[1]
• Faroese viður^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk ved^[1]
• Old Swedish viþer^[1]
• Swedish ved^[1]
• Old Danish with^[1]
• Danish ved^[1]

Usage notes

Not to be confused with the preposition viðr, the older form of við “with, against”, nor with the adjective víðr “wide”.^[3][12] As the second part of personal names (Arnviðr, Sigviðr, Gautviðr) the word is common in Sweden, rare in Norway and absent in Iceland.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ90
3. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 660
4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 462
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c d e f Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. viður
7. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. ved
8. ^ a b c Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. ved
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. viðr
10. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
11. ^ a b c Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
12. ^ a b c d e f g Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. viðr
13. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. viðr
14. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 703
15. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 732
16. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 614
17. ^ a b Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 1171
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 52