Vare Arveord: Etymologisk Ordbok (review)

Those interested in Norwegian and comparative Scandinavian will be pleased with this new Norwegian etymological dictionary by a Germanist (Bjorvand) and an Indo-Europeanist (Lindeman). This work is somewhat different from most other etymological dictionaries, as it is more of a collection of essays on the oldest Norwegian words than a traditional etymological dictionary. Entries generally consist of a brief definition, grammatical information, a list of related Germanic forms (with Scandinavian parallels listed first), and the etymology itself; additional background material (e.g. Indo-European parallels) is given when necessary. The prefatory material contains brief introductory essays describing the book and the Germanic language family (focusing on its classification and Grimm’s and Verner’s Laws) and two lists of abbreviations (one for languages and one for other abbreviations and technical symbols). There is also a list of words treated here that do not have their own entries and an extensive bibliography.

Perhaps the best way to give an impression of the work is to discuss a few linguistically or culturally significant entries. Consider the treatment of bok ‘book’. The traditional etymology for this word links it to the word for ‘beech tree’ on the grounds that words for ‘book’ generally come from the material the book was written on, in this case, beech wood. This etymology has been challenged recently on both morphological and phonological grounds; here the traditional etymology is endorsed, but the objections to it are carefully considered before ultimately being dismissed on semantic grounds.

A second representative entry is ϕl‘beer, ale’. This word is notoriously difficult to etymologize, given the general lack of Indo-European cognates (similar forms in Baltic are loanwords from Germanic). It has accordingly often been linked to the magic runic word alu, which has possible parallels in Greek, Baltic, and Anatolian. While the entry here mentions alu and the possible Anatolian connections, the other parallels are not touched on, and there is also somewhat less discussion of relevant cultural issues (e.g. the possible use of beer in Germanic religious rituals) than one might hope.

Finally, consider the discussion of rune ‘rune’. The older Germanic languages exhibit a wide variety of related forms, with meanings ranging from ‘secret’ to ‘written message’. This range of meanings has made etymologizing this word problematic; the traditional etymology, first proposed by Wilhelm Grimm, invokes the putative magical nature of the runes to make the necessary connection. More recent work on this problem has focused on certain specifically Christian usages of the runes, suggesting that the traditional etymology needs to be revised. While the entry here does a fine job of presenting the traditional etymology, this more recent work is unfortunately not discussed.

Despite the various minor objections raised above, as well as others not discussed here, this is an excellent book and a welcome addition to the etymological resources for Scandinavian.