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vindauga

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Etymology and origin of the Old Norse word vindauga

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1050–1100 runic inscription N A240 More words from the 11th century
Ultimate origin
Old Norse vindr,auga
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old Norse vindauga
English window

Forms

vindauga n (genitive vindauga, plural vindaugu) (weak an-stem)[1] Runic uintau(g)a and uitauki on a wooden stick from Trondheim.[2]

Etymology

It is a compound from Old Norse vindr (“wind”) + auga (“eye”), literally “wind's eye”.[1][3][4][5] The first part continues Proto-Germanic *windaz (“wind”),[6][7] the second Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”).[1] The Gersum project notes that the compound is found only in Norse.[8]

Hellquist explains the name as an opening through which wind or air comes in, and compares other words for a window made from words for breath or wind, such as Spanish ventana from Latin ventus (“wind”).[9] Old English had a parallel formation with “eye”, ēagþȳrel (“eye-hole; window”).[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded on a runic stick from Trondheim, which Rundata dates to 1050–1100: uintau(g)a on one side and uitauki on the other, normalised as Vindauga álokað(?) er þetta and Vindauga lokað, with the sense “window, opening”, apparently said of a window that is shut.[2] In manuscripts Menota first has it in Droplaugarsona saga in AM 132 fol, of 1330–1370.[11]

Semantic evolution

The Old Norse window was an opening in the wall or the lower part of the roof to let in light and air, without glass;[12][13] Fritzner quotes a barn with two such openings, tvau váru vindaugu á hlöðunni.[13] The word occurs in the Norwegian laws.[12]

Modern Icelandic vindauga mostly means an air hole or the opening through which hay is brought into a barn; the sense “window” is old-fashioned there, having given way to gluggi.[4][14] Swedish kept vindöga only in dialects, after the word from Latin fenestra spread with glazed windows.[9] It was borrowed as Middle English windou, widespread from early in the period, the source of the English word window;[8][15][16] it replaced Old English ēagþyrel.[16] De Vries also traces Shetland windog, Manx uinnag and Middle Irish fuindeóc to the Norse word, after Marstrander.[3]

Timeline

  • 1050–1100 – uintau(g)a on a runic stick from Trondheim.[2]
  • c. 1200 – Middle English windou, from the Norse word.[16][15]
  • 1330–1370 – vindauga in Droplaugarsona saga, AM 132 fol.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a window, an opening in a wall or the lower part of a roof that lets in light and air.[17][13][12][18]

Descendants

  • Icelandic vindauga[1]
  • Faroese vindeyga[1]
  • Norwegian Nynorsk vindauga[1]
  • Swedish vindöga[1]
  • Danish vindue[1]
  • Norwegian Bokmål vindu[1]
  • English window[8][15]
  • Manx uinnag[3]
  • Middle Irish fuindeóc[3]
  • vindr
  • auga

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 A240
  3. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 665
  4. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. vindauga
  5. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 707
  6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 587
  7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. vindr
  8. ^ a b c Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org, p. s.v. wyndow
  9. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. *vindöga
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. éagþȳrel
  11. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
  12. ^ a b c Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 716
  13. ^ a b c Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. vindauga
  14. ^ Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 946
  15. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018), p. s.v. windou
  16. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. window
  17. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vindauga
  18. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 742
Cite this entry

“Vindauga.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/non/vindauga. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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