Wirdle solutions week 7
We're pleased to announce that as of today the Shaetlan Wirdle has had more than 11,000 players from 88 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! 🤗
toams plural of toam ‘fishing line’
History: this word entered Northumbrian Old English late enough to only be attested in Scots and northern English varieties. It comes from Old Norse taumr ‘cord; rein, bridle’ (which is also the origin of Sw. töm, No. tømme both ‘rein, bridle’ as well as NyNo. taum ‘string, line’ and Faer. teymur ‘lower end of fishing line’). The earliest Scots attestation is toume ‘rope, cord’ (1670), but indications are that the word entered several centuries earlier because even though the meaning of ‘a piece of equipment used to harness horses or oxen to a plough, harrow, cart, etc.’ isn’t attested in the Old English data (the OE word for that was tygel), it came to have that meaning for various Middle English forms (t(h)em(e), teame, etc) from the mid-14th C, probably through contact with the Scandinavian influenced varieties in the north. It ultimately comes from Proto-Germanic *taumaz ‘rope, cord, bridle; a tie, group, team; a birth line, lineage, offspring’ which is a nominal derivation of *taugijaną ‘to stretch, draw’ and which comes from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- ‘to pull, draw, lead’.
moots plural of moot ‘mite; very small creature’
History: this word is Shetland specific. It comes from Old Norse motti ‘moth’ (which is the origin of No. and Sw. dial. mott ‘moth’ as well as Faer. motti/motta ‘mite’), which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *mutta/muttôn ‘moth’ (from Proto-Indo-European *mut(n)- ‘worm’). This is also the origin of Old English moþ(ð)e, moððe, etc ‘moth’, which led to Sc. mo(a)th and Eng. moth.
stret ‘stretched, tight, tight-fitting’
History: this word entered Scots and English no later than the mid-14th C from Old French estreit ‘narrow, tight, close’, which comes from Latin strictus ‘drawn, tightened’, a past participle of stringĕre ‘to tighten, bind tightly’, which in turn comes from Proto-Italic *strenge/o ‘to tie’ from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰe/o- ‘to draw, tie’.
licht ‘light’
History: this is a very old word. The Old English le(c)ht, liht, etc derives from Proto-Germanic *linhtą ‘light’, which itself goes back to Proto-Indo-European *lewk- ‘to shine, see, be bright’.
nyaaf ‘an insignificant but pompous fool’
History: this word is found throughout the Scots speaking area. It has various interrelated meanings: ‘to talk in a senseless, pert, frivolous way; to harp; to yap (as a small dog), etc’ and by extension nominalised to mean ‘anything small and insignificant; a puny, insignificant person; a small, conceited, impudent, chattering person; a term of contempt for any unpleasant or objectionable person, a fool, etc.’. The origin is unknown, but may be imitative of small dogs’ yelping bark.
taing ‘flat tongue of land projecting into the sea’
History: this is an early Scandinavian loan into Scots and the northern varieties of English. It is attested from 1350 (tanges), but was probably in use much earlier in the northern varieties. It comes from Old Norse tangi ‘point, spit of land, tang of a knife, etc.’ (the origin of No./Da. tange ‘knife edge, spit of land’ and Sw. tånge ‘knife, iron; spit of land’), which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *tangan ‘tip, blade’. The further etymology is obscure.
yoals plural of yoal ‘fast six-oared boat, slimmer and smaller than sixareen’
History: this word is a bit of a mystery. The earliest attestations in Old Scots (yoll) and Middle English (ya(u)le, yale, etc) are from the later 16C, and seem to be from Middle Low German jolle, jölle, jelle ‘dinghy, small boat’ or Dutch jol ‘yawl’, which are also only attested since the 16C. The 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.
