vinna

Forms

vinna (singular past indicative vann, plural past indicative unnu, past participle unninn) (strong)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *winnaną (“to labour, toil; to win; to fight”),^[1][2][3] a strong verb of the third class.^[4] The same verb is Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (winnan, “to suffer”), Old English winnan (“to labour, suffer”), Old Frisian winna (“to gain”), Old Saxon winnan (“to fight, gain”) and Old High German winnan (“to strive, fight”).^[2][5][6] De Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon reconstruct its double ⟨-nn-⟩ from an older ⟨-nw-⟩.^[7][8]

Its nearest relative outside Germanic is Sanskrit वनोति (vanóti, “to win, gain”),^[1][5] and the root is given as Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, wish, love”) by Wiktionary and Köbler,^[1][3] the root of vinr (“friend”) and ván (“hope”).^[8] Feist instead separates a root “to toil, labour” from the root “to desire”.^[5] De Vries rejects Van Hamel's attempt to derive the senses from one another, and prefers to let them develop side by side.^[7]

Seebold and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon trace some senses to lost prefixes: “to win, gain” to a verb with ⟨ga-⟩, “to withstand” to one with ⟨and-⟩, and “to overcome” to one with ⟨ufar-⟩.^[9][8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rundata reads vann on the Hemdrup stick from Jutland, dated 900–1050 after Imer, in an obscure line about a stormy one who never overcame its addressee.^[10] On the larger Jelling stone King Haraldr calls himself the man er sér vann Danmǫrk alla ok Norveg “who won for himself all Denmark and Norway”.^[11] In the manuscripts it is first dated in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 A of 1150–1250.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Old Norse verb joins the senses that other Germanic languages split: “to work, labour” (also of tilling land), “to perform, do” (vinna eið “to swear an oath”, vinna e-m bana “to kill someone”), “to wait on” someone, and “to win, conquer” (vinna sigr).^[13][14] The Gothic verb means only “to suffer”.^[5] In the poetry it is very often used of fighting, so that “win” and “fight” can be hard to tell apart.^[15] With the dative it means “to withstand, be able to resist”.^[16] The laws add “to convict, prove” and “to suffice”, and the middle vinnask means “to last, be enough”.^[17][18]

It survives as Icelandic vinna, Swedish vinna and Danish vinde.^[8][19]

Timeline

• 900–1050 – vann on the Hemdrup stick, by Imer's dating.^[10]
• 1150–1250 – vinna, vinnask in NRA norr fragm 81 A.^[12]
• 1200–1225 – vinnr, vann, unnin, older viðr in AM 619 4to.^[20]
• 1225–1250 – vann, vanzk in DG 8 II.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. to work, labour; to till (land).^[13][22]
2. to perform, do, accomplish;^[13][15] vinna eið to swear an oath.^[13][15]
3. to wait upon, attend to (someone).^[13]
4. to win, gain; to conquer, overcome.^[13][1]
5. (with dative) to withstand.^[16][1]
6. (law) to convict, prove; to suffice.^[17]

Word family

• atvinna
• vinnumaðr
• vinnuhjún
• vinnugóðr
• vinnufœrr

Descendants

• Icelandic vinna^[1]
• Faroese vinna^[1]
• Norwegian vinne^[1]
• Old Swedish vinna^[1]
• Swedish vinna^[1]
• Old Danish winnæ^[1]
• Danish vinde^[1]

Related words

• vinr
• ván
• ósk

Usage notes

Beside the verb stood a weak feminine noun vinna “work, labour”, especially farm work, of the same root.^[23][7][24]

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 Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 455
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. vinna
5. ^ a b c d Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 336
6. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 432
7. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 666
8. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. vinna
9. ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton
10. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR EM85;350
11. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR 42
12. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 A
13. ^ a b c d e f Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vinna
14. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 708
15. ^ a b c Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 618
16. ^ a b Neckel, Gustav (1927), Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius, vol. 2: Kommentierendes Glossar, Heidelberg, p. 198
17. ^ a b A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. vinna
18. ^ 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. vinna
19. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. vinna
20. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 619 4to
21. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
22. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 743
23. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 709
24. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 717