Wirdle solutions week 9
We're pleased to announce that as of today the Shaetlan Wirdle has had more than 13,000 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! 🤗
shair ‘chair’
History: this is an English loan into the Scots speaking area. It in turn is a loan from Anglo-Norman chaëre, which comes from Latin cat(h)edra ‘seat’. This in turn is a loan from the Greek καθέδρα (kathédra) ‘seat, throne, chair, sitting position, etc’, which is a derivation of κατά (katá) ‘down’ (from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥ta ‘near, beside, along, with, etc’) + ἕδρα (hédra) ‘seat’ (from Proto-Hellenic *hédrā, in turn from Proto-Indo-European *sedreh₂, which is a nominal derivation of the verb *sed- ‘to sit’).
wylks plural of wylk ‘periwinkle’
History: the Old Scots wilk meant ‘whelk’ (not periwinkle) and is attested from 1500. Soon after that the meaning shifted to ‘periwinkle’ in the Scots speaking areas, which is the meaning attested since 1722. The word is cognate with English whelk, which comes from Old English wi(o)loc, wyloc, weoloc, weoluc ‘a whelk’, which in turn comes from Proto-West-Germanic *weluk ‘whelk’ (the origin of the Du. and Fris. wulk, as well as Flem. wullok), but any further etymology is unknown. The unetymological spelling with wh- in English started in the 15C.
blaan past participle of blaa ‘blow’
History: the Old Scots forms blawe, blau, blav, ‘to blow’ descend from Old English bláwan ‘to blow, breathe, inflate, sound’, which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *blēaną from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- ‘to swell, blow up’.
upbye ‘up (over) there’
History: this refers to a known reference point that is ‘up over there’ from the speaker’s reference point; it’s a compound of up + bye ‘near, beside, close to’. Shaetlan has two forms for ‘by’: the unstressed bi (/bɪ/) and the stressed bye (/baɪ/). This differentiation is very old and goes straight back to Old English. The ultimate origin of both forms is the Proto-Germanic *bi ‘by, at, near, around’ which comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi ‘on, at, near’. In Old English two forms emerged, the strong or stressed bî, bī, by, bij, bei, and the weak or unstressed bĭ, bĕ. The strong/stressed form was used for adverbs and strong prepositions and the weak/unstressed form for verbal prefixes and weak prepositions. This differentiation has remained consistent in the northern and Scots varieties ever since.
truck ‘trample’
History: this word is only found in the former Norn speaking areas. It comes from Old Norse traðka ‘to tread on by foot; trample (on)’, which also survives in Icel. traðka ‘to trample (on)’, Far. traðk ‘a track’, NyNo. trakk ‘a track; the act of trampling’, trakke ‘to trample’.
rifts present tense of rift ‘to belch’; plural of rift ‘a belch’
History:this is an early loan into the Middle English and Scots varieties from Old Norse rypta ‘belch’. The Old Scots form rift is attested from 1420 with the meaning ‘a belch' and from 1456 with the meaning ‘to belch’. The Middle English forms rift(e), ryft(e) ‘to belch’ are attested from the 15C.
kerry ‘carry’
History: this is an English word borrowed from Anglo-Norman carier, carrier, karier, kerier ‘to carry’ as well as post-classical Latin carriare ‘to transport (by land), to take or transport’. The choice of k- in the spelling of kerry follows our principle of using <k> for the “hard” k-sound (velar plosive) before /i, e, y/ sounds (high front vowels) irrespective of the etymology of the word, while <c> is used for “hard” k-sounds before /a, o, u/ sounds (low and back vowels) when that’s etymologically justified, because <ci‑, ce‑, cy‑> tends to imply “soft” s-sounds (palatal fricatives and sibilants) for most speakers.
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.
