Wirdle solutions week 8
We're pleased to announce that as of today the Shaetlan Wirdle has had more than 12,000 players from 89 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 https://www.iheardee.com/english/spelling-in-shaetlan (or in our linktree).
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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! 🤗
riggs plural of rigg ‘spine, back; ridge’
History: this word is inherited both from Scots and Norn. The Old Scots rigge is attested meaning ‘high ridge of land’ from 1375, ‘back’ from c. 1420, and ‘strip of arable land’ from 1428. The Old English hryuic, hryum, hyrgc, etc ‘back, spine, ridge, elevated surface’ comes from Proto-Germanic *hrugjaz ‘back, spine, ridge’, which might possibly derive from Proto-Indo-European*(s)kreuk-/*(s)ker- ‘to turn, bend’, but there are no certain cognates outside the Germanic branch. The Scots and northern forms indicate an early influence in pronunciation from Old Norse hryggr ‘spine’ (which is the origin of Da., No. ryg and Sw. rygg).
hanks plural of hank ‘skein (of yarn); coil; to coil, gather up a length of line’
History:this word has taken an interesting route. It is found in Old Scots as hank from ca 1420 and in Middle English as hanc, hanke from the 14th C. It seems to be a loan from Old Norse hǫnk ‘hank, coil, skein, clasp, etc’, which is the origin of Sw. hank ‘ring, loop, etc (to hang stg with)’ and No./Da. hank ‘handle (as of a basket); ear of a pot, etc’. The Old Norse word is itself a loan from Middle Low German hank ‘handle’, possibly a Hansa loan. It ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *ke(n)g-/*ke(n)k- ‘hook, handle, latch, peg, etc’.
skurm ‘(outer) shell’
History: this word is only found in the former Norn speaking areas. It comes from Old Norse skurnr ‘a shell’ (the origin of Icel. skurma ‘to peel, scale off’, skuru ‘egg-shell’ and NyNo. skurn ‘hard shell’). The origin is unknown; it might possibly be a derivation of the verb skera ‘to cut’ (which comes from Proto-Germanic *skeraną ‘to shear, cut’, itself from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off’).
gants present tense of gant ‘to yawn’
History: this word is a bit of a mystery. It is only found in Scots and the northern varieties. The Old Scots ga(u)nt ‘yawn, gape’ is attested as a verb from 1456 and as a noun from c. 1470. It derives from Old English gānian ‘to yawn’, but the form indicates that it might possibly come via a frequentative (indicating that something happens often) derivation *gánęttan. Old English gānian comes from Proto-Germanic *gainōna- ‘to yawn, gape’, which in turn comes from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰin-neh2-/*ǵʰh2-i-nu-e ‘to open, split up’.
dorts present tense of dort ‘to sulk’; or noun ‘sulkiness, (the) sulks’
History: this word is again a mystery. It is again only found in Scots and the northern varieties. The earliest attestation in Old Scots is dort ‘to sulk’ (1620) and dorts ‘sulkiness, etc’ (c.1637), but derivations of the word are found earlier: dortie (c.1590) and dortynes (1513). The origin is unknown.
smeeg ‘smirk’
History: this word is Shetland specific. It is not found in Old Norse and thus not inherited from Norn. The Scandinavian cognates, eg NyNo. smeik(j)e, Sw. smeka both ‘caress’ and Da. dial. smige ‘to ingratiate oneself’ are all from Middle Low German smēken ‘flatter’. It is therefore likely that the Shaetlan word is also a Hansa loan.
hosst ‘to cough; a cough’
History: this word also has fascinating twists and turns to it. It is predominantly found in the Scots and northern varieties. There was the Old English hwósta ‘a cough’, hwóstan ‘to cough’, but is not known to have survived into Middle English. Old Scots host ‘coughing; a cough’ is attested from c.1470, and as a verb from c.1500. The northern forms comes from Old Norse hósta ‘to cough’, hósti ‘a cough’, which comes from Proto-Germanic *hwôstô-, *hwōsaną (also the origin of the lost OE hwósta(n)), which ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂s- ‘to cough’. However, it is possible that Old English hwósta may have survived dialectally in such forms as whoost, which could have become hoost, which might be the origin of the Shropshire word ‘oost.
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.
