vita

Forms

vita (singular past indicative vissi, plural past indicative vissu, past participle vitaðr) (present)^[1] Viking Age runic spellings: uait and uit for the present veit, uisi for the past vissi.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *witaną (“to know”),^[1] a preterite-present verb, whose present “I know” continues an old perfect, so that its first sense was “I have seen”.^[3][4] The verb is shared by the other old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (witan), Old English witan, Old Frisian wita, Old Saxon witan and Old High German wiȥȥan.^[5][6]

The perfect is Proto-Indo-European *wóyde (“has seen, knows”), made to the root Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”),^[1][7] the root of Latin videō (“to see”) and Proto-Slavic *viděti (“to see”), and the same perfect is Ancient Greek οἶδα (oîda, “I know”).^[8][6]

De Vries lists three other verbs of the same spelling: a strong verb “to go, travel”, which matches Old English gewītan and fell together with this one, a weak verb “to watch, observe”, and a weak verb “to punish”.^[5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon traces the participle vitaðr “appointed, destined” to an old weak verb “to see, assign”, like the weak verb Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (witan, “to watch”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Viking Age runestones already have the present veit, as on the Swedish stone Sö 56: Ek veit Hástein þá Holmstein brœðr menn rýnasta á Miðgarði “I know Hásteinn and Holmsteinn, the brothers most skilled in runes in Middle Earth”.^[10][2] In manuscripts the verb is first dated in Menota's Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 A, of 1150–1250, and the manuscript AM 677 4to, of 1200–1225, has vita, veit and vissu.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Zoëga puts first the sense “to be conscious, have one's senses”, and then “to know”, “to find out” and the uses with fram “to foresee”.^[13] Beside them stands a group of senses Fritzner and Baetke set out at length: “to face, point (in a direction)”, “to turn out, lead to” and “to portend”, as in hvat veit þat “what does that mean?”.^[14][15] De Vries keeps “to show, make known” under this verb and explains the sense “to go” by the merger with the strong verb.^[5]

In the laws the verb also meant “to prove, bear witness”, and LMNL lists its legal senses from “accuse” to “prove lawfully”.^[16] The verb continues as Icelandic vita, Swedish veta and Danish vide.^[8][3]

Timeline

• 1150–1250 – vita in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 A.^[11]
• 1200–1225 – vita, veit, vissu in AM 677 4to.^[12]
• 1200–1300 – the past vissi in AM 383 I 4to.^[17]
• 1300s – vitir “you know” on the Norwegian runic inscription N 648: Vil ek at þú vitir “I want you to know”.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. to be conscious, to have one's senses.^[13][19]
2. to know, to be aware of.^[13][20]
3. to see, try to find out.^[13]
4. vita fram: to foresee, know the future.^[13]
5. to face or point in a direction.^[14][15]
6. to portend, mean.^[15][21]
7. (law) to prove, bear witness.^[16]

Word family

• vitund
• vitugr
• forvitinn

Descendants

• Icelandic vita^[1]
• Faroese vita^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk vita^[1]
• Swedish veta^[1]
• Danish vide^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål vite^[1]

Related words

• vit
• vitr
• vitni
• vitja
• viss

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
3. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. veta
4. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. vide
5. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 669
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 400
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. vita
9. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. *vita
10. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Sö 56
11. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 A
12. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
13. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vita
14. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. vita
15. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 750
16. ^ a b A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. vita
17. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 383 I 4to
18. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 648
19. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 712
20. ^ 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. vita
21. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 538