Wirdle solutions week 2
We're pleased to announce that as of today the Shaetlan Wirdle has 8500 players from 81 countries. Here are the solutions for this week! Scroll for one word at a time to get the correct answer, it's meaning, and the history of the word. Last you'll find the main references we use for the etymologies, and the latest map of players.
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It's important to remember that "Old English" was never a monolithic language, but rather is a cover term for four distinct North Sea Germanic varieties. The direct ancestor of Scots was Northumbrian Old English. The direct ancestor of English was Mercian Old English. But most of the existing data comes from West Saxon Old English. Wherever possible we have given the Northumbrian Old English forms, since the main ancestors of Shaetlan are Norn and Scots (not English), with a lot of Dutch/Low German influence.
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With thanks again to Julie for hatching the idea and to Andrew for making it possible! 🤗
swall ‘swell’ (noun)
History: Old Scots swall ‘a swell; to swell’ (attested 1598), a noun derived out of the Old English swellan ‘to swell’, which comes from Proto-Germanic *swellaną ‘to swell’. Where that word comes from is uncertain, maybe from Proto-Indo-European *su̯el-nṓ ‘to swell’.
skelp ‘a slap; to slap’
History: Old Scots skelp ‘a blow’ (attested 1540) and ‘to smack, clash’ (attested 1590). The earliest attestations are Middle English scelpe ‘to strike, slap; a blow, slap’ around 1400-1450. The ultimate origin is unknown, but probably imitative. Suggestions of a Scandinavian derivation are not convincing.
micht ‘might’ (auxiliary verb)
History: Old Scots micht (from 1375). This is originally the Old English 1st and 3rd person past tense form mehte, mih(h)te, etc, of the verb magan ‘can, to be able (to)’, which derives from Proto-Germanic *maganą ‘to be able; may’. This in turn comes from PIE *(me)mógʰe ‘to have power; to be able (to)’, which is the perfect form of *megʰ- ‘to be able (to)’.
wealt ‘wealth’
History: the exact history of this word is debated, but it could be a combination of well and weal plus the ending -t (defricative stop of original -þ; parallel to such derivations as lent ‘length’, aert ‘earth’, nort ‘north’, etc. More about the “th”-sounds in our post from 23 October 2021). The word well comes from Old English wyl, wæll, etc ‘the condition of being well, well-being, happiness’ (which led to Middle English welþe, welt(h)). The word weal comes from Old English we(o)la ‘wealth, riches’, which in turn derives from Proto-Germanic *walô ‘wellness, weal’. The ending -t creates nouns and comes from Old English -þ (nominaliser), which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *-iþō (nominaliser), and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-iteh₂, *-teh₂ which created nouns indicating a state of being.
hegri ‘heron’
History: this word is Shetland specific. It is very old: it comes from Norn hegri, which comes from Old Norse hegri ‘heron’. That in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *hraigran ‘heron’, which comes from the Proto-Indo-European *kroikro-, *krikro, an imitative word for the hoarse cry of the birds.
pirms ‘bobbins’ plural of pirm ‘bobbin’
History: origin uncertain. Found in Scots from 1473 (pirn), also as pyrne (as an adjective; attested 1511) and pirnit (attested 1494).
ploos ‘ploughs’ plural of ploo ‘plough’
History: this word has made it around the North Sea in a loop. The Old Scots plewch (1375), plew (1416), pleuch (ca 1400), etc. come from late Old English plog ‘ploughland (the measure of land that could be ploughed in one day)’. This is in turn a loan from late Old Norse plógr ‘plough’, which itself is a loan from the continental Western Germanic languages, cf. Old High German phluog ‘plough’ (8th C) and Old Frisian plōch, plōg ‘plough’. This Western Germanic word replaced the older Norse arðr ‘plough’. Ultimately ploo goes back to Proto-Germanic *plōga- ‘plough’. Any further origin is unknown.
References:
Bokmålsordboka. 2022. Språkrådet og Universitetet i Bergen. Available at http://ordbøkene.no.
Christie-Johnston, Alastair & Adaline Christie-Johnston. 2014. Shetland words. A dictionary of the Shetland dialect. Lerwick: The Shetland Times.
de Vaan, Michiel. 2008. Etymological dictionary of Latin and the other Italic languages. Leiden, Boston: Brill
de Vries, Jan. 1977. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Leiden: Brill.
DSL Online. 2002. Glasgow: The University of Glasgow. Available at https://dsl.ac.uk/.
Heggestad, Leiv, Finn Hødnebø & Erik Simensen. 1993. Norrøn ordbok. 4th edn of Gamalnorsk ordbok. Oslo: Det norske samlaget.
Hellquist, Elof. 1993. Svensk etymologisk ordbok. 3rd edn. 2 Vols. Malmö: Gleerups.
Jakobsen, Jakob. 1985 [1928]. An etymological dictionary of the Norn language in Shetland. Lerwick: The Shetland Times.
Kroonen, Guus. 2013. Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden: Brill.
Lehmann, Winfred P. 1986. A Gothic etymological dictionary. Leiden: Brill.
Macbain, Alexander. 1911. An etymological dictionary of the Gaelic language. Stirling: Eneas Mackay.
Marwick, Hugh. 1929. The Orkney Norn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Matasović, Ranko. 2009. Etymological dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden: Brill.
Nielsen, Niels Åge. 1995. Dansk etymologisk ordbog. Ordenes historie. 4th edn. København: Gyldendal.
Nynorskordboka. 2022. Språkrådet og Universitetet i Bergen. Available at http://ordbøkene.no.
OED Online. 2021. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at https://www-oed-com.ezproxy.uni-giessen.de.
Orel, Vladimir. 2003. A handbook of Germanic etymology. Leiden: Brill.
Pfeifer, Wolfgang (ed.). 1997. Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.
Pokorny, Julius. 1994. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 3rd edn. 2 Vols. Tübingen: Francke Verlag.
Torp, Alf. 1919. Nynorsk etymologisk ordbok. Kristiania: Forlaget H. Aschehoug & Co.
Zoëga, Geir T. 1896. English-Icelandic dictionary. Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson.
Zoëga, Geir T. 1922. Icelandic-English dictionary. 2nd edn, enlarged. Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson.
