Wirdle solutions week 5
We're pleased to announce that as of today the Shaetlan Wirdle has had more than 10,000 players from 85 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. You’ll find the principles of our spelling system at Spelling in Shaetlan.
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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! 🤗
sloos plural of sloo ‘slovenly, lazy person’; present tense of sloo ‘to loiter idly’
History: this word is Shetland specific. It derives from Old Norse slóði ‘branches or small trees bound together as a drag (to transport hay, or to use as broom, etc); [by extension] a lanky, lazy, slovenly, sluggish person’. The word is derived from slóð ‘track, path’, of uncertain origin. It might come from Proto-Germanic *slòðjanan ‘to trail’ or *slīdaną ‘to slide’. It remains in Norwegian (both Bokmål and Nynorsk) as sloe.
oorik ‘small person’
History: this word seems to be specific to the former Norn speaking areas. The origin is obscure, but it might be a diminutive of the Old Norse intensifying prefix ør-/ur- which originally means ‘origin; from; ex-’ etc and ultimately comes from Proto-Germanic *uz ‘out, of’ (itself from Proto-Indo-European *úd ‘out(wards), away, up(wards)’). Cf. the Norwegian ør- and Swedish ur- intensifiers, as in No. ørliten, Sw. urliten ‘very small’. Alternatively oorik may be a diminutive of orr ‘to crouch or shiver with cold’, of obscure origin.
fliss ‘flake; thin sliver’
History: this word is Shetland specific and comes from Old Norse flís ‘splinter, chip’, which in turn derives from Proto-Germanic *flīsō from Proto-Indo-European *(s)plei- ‘to chip, split, splinter’.
maist ‘most’ superlative of mair ‘more’
History: the Old Scots form maist(e) from pre-1700 comes from the Northumbrian Old English maast, which itself comes from Proto-Germanic *maist(az), the superlative of *mikilaz ‘big, great’ from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s ‘big, great’.
ivver ‘ever’
History: this word is a bit of a mystery. It appears in Old English no later than 1175 and the Northumbrian forms were aefre, æfra, etc. There are no known cognates in the other Germanic languages. The word possibly originates in Old English ā ‘ever, always’ (from Proto-Germanic *aiwaz ‘eternity, long time’) + a second element of uncertain origin, possibly feorh ‘life’, as in the phrase ā tō feore ‘forever [lit. ‘ever to life]’.
klaag ‘cackle, clamour (esp. of fowl), jabber, chatter (esp. of birds)’
History: this word might be Shetland specific, although Old Scots has claik ‘the cry of a goose’ (attested ca 1470–1480), clake ‘to utter cries’ (attested 1513) and clak ‘to make a clapping noise’ (attested ca 1590). It derives from Old Norse klaka ‘to make noise (esp. bird noise)’, which comes from Proto-Germanic *klakō ‘din, noise’, itself from Proto-Indo-European *glag- ‘to make a sound’. It’s likely that the origins are all imitative.
healt ‘health’
History: from Old English hǣlþ ‘health’, which comes from Proto-Germanic *hailaz ‘whole, hale, intact’, which itself comes from Proto-Indo-European*kóilo- ‘whole, intact’. Defricative stop of original -þ; parallel to such derivations as lent ‘length’, aert ‘earth’, nort ‘north’, etc. For more about the “th”-sounds in Shaetlan, see our post from 23 October 2021.
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.
