William Sayers

The Icelandic chieftain Óláfr Hǫskuldsson of Laxdæla saga is the son of an enslaved Irish princess, Melkorka, yet is still judged a candidate to succeed her father as an Irish king. His choice to return to Iceland is validated by his subsequent success as a stockman and community leader. Yet he fails to recognize that the source of his prosperity and material plenty lies in his maternal inheritance, in which Melkorka (‘Smooth-Oat’) may be identified as a Celtic sovereignty figure, the source of his irrecusable election to a rich somatic life and chieftaincy, complemented by the attention of his paternal family’s tutelary spirit or fylgja. By slaughtering his totemic ox, Harri, he calls down the vengeance of the Icelandic tutelary figure representing his father’s family’s fortunes which had concurrently assured his success. Retribution follows later in the saga with the death of his favourite son, Kjartan. From the perspective of the thirteenth century, when Iceland yielded to Norwegian hegemony, the arc of Óláfr’s career is paralleled on a greater scale by Iceland’s early medieval history.

Difficulties in tracing the etymology of lexical isolates and loans from other languages are exemplified in the discussion of a gathering of English words previously without satisfactory explanations of origin. In particular, recognition of the adstratum effects of the Irish language on British English over several centuries prompts a call not only for numerous revisions to entries in our standard lexicographical reference works but for a fundamental rethinking of relations between these multiply overlapping speech communities.

Difficulties in tracing the etymology of lexical isolates and loans from other languages are exemplified in the discussion of a gathering of English words previously without satisfactory explanations of origin.

Difficulties in tracing the etymology of lexical isolates and loans from other languages are exemplified in the discussion of a gathering of English words previously without satisfactory explanations of origin.

Sample English reduplicative compounds on the model of flim-flam and higgledy-piggledy are analyzed for the interplay of formal features (alliteration, vowel alternation, rhyme), semantics (as parts and wholes), and obscure origins. Loans, new coinages, internal realignment, register, and affect are discussed. Inadequacies in earlier lexicographical, especially etymological, treatment are remedied.

Sample English reduplicative compounds on the model of flim-flam and higgledy-piggledy are analyzed for the interplay of formal features (alliteration, vowel alternation, rhyme), semantics (as parts and wholes), and obscure origins. Loans, new coinages, internal realignment, register, and affect are discussed. Inadequacies in earlier lexicographical, especially etymological, treatment are remedied.

Use of the demonstrative pronoun ese “that, that man” in familiar North American Spanish speech is traced to Andalusian Spanish and the influence of Caló, the cryptolect of the Iberian Roma. In early para-Romani, the inherited four-term deictic system (situational/contextual, general/specific) yields to the very differently organized Romance three-part paradigm (este, ese, aquel), as, concurrently, Caló locative adverbs often replace personal pronouns. Yet, even after the wholesale replacement of Caló demonstratives by Spanish forms, the function of an earlier deictic vocative phrasing is maintained in ese, to be understood as you, right there, my conversational partner.

This multi-part study continues an inquiry earlier initiated in these pages into words listed in Oxford English dictionary as still without satisfactory etymologies. Loans from a variety of source languages are reviewed, accompanied by commentary on earlier lexicographical praxis as it relates to various popular registers of English.

This article concludes a study initiated under the same title in volume 136, issue 1 (2019) of this journal. The present group of words to be examined is drawn from the vocabulary for the harvesting of natural resources

This three-part study continues an inquiry earlier initiated in these pages into words listed in Oxford English dictionary as still without satisfactory etymologies. Loans from a variety of source languages are reviewed, accompanied by commentary on earlier lexicographical praxis as it relates to various popular registers of English.

This multi-part study continues an inquiry earlier initiated in these pages into words listed in Oxford English dictionary as still without satisfactory etymologies. Loans from a variety of source languages are reviewed, accompanied by commentary on earlier lexicographical praxis as it relates to various popular registers of English.

In preference to the common assumption that Óðinn’s ravens daily gather general in­formation from around the world and report back to their master, this study identifies their principal informants as the newly dead (recently slain warriors and hanged men), and the information gathered not simply wisdom but tactical intelligence needed for the eventual cataclysmic battle of Ragnarǫk, in which Óðinn’s troop of fallen warriors, the Einherjar of Valhǫll (named in Gylfaginning in the same context as the ravens), will also participate. The study addresses the central questions of chthonic wisdom, of how the dead (are presumed to) know what is hidden from the living, and why Snorri, in contrast to the skalds, paints an innocuous picture of the ravens.

Etymologies are proposed for twelve previously unexplained English words from working-class or underclass English vocabulary. Treated in Part 1 of this study are cod as ‘dupe’ and codswallop, mollycoddle / mollycot, natty, and yokel. Common features are isolation, extended use, pejoration, and treatment by lexicographers with varying degrees of proscriptiveness and by word buffs with enthusiastic amateur etymologizing.

Etymologies are proposed for twelve previously unexplained English words from work­ing-class or underclass English vocabulary. Treated in Part 2 of this study are aloof/aluff, boondoggle, and welch/jew/gyp. Common features are isolation, extended use, pejoration, and treatment by lexicographers with varying degrees of proscriptiveness and by word buffs with enthusiastic amateur etymologizing.

This is the second part of a study begun in Sayers (2020).