This is page 49 of An Icelandic-English Dictionary by Cleasby/Vigfusson (1874)

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B -- BAÐMR. 49

256 (Ed. Havn.): mp is only found in adopted words, as in kempa (cp. Germ. kampf), lampi (Lat. lampas), and is almost assimilated into pp (kappi): mb is tolerated in a few words, such as umb, lamb, dramb, dumbr, kambr, vömb, timbr, gymbr. strambr, klömbr; cp. the Engl. lamb, comb, timber, womb, where the b is not pronounced (except in the word timber); in limb, numb the b is not organic (cp. Icel. limr, numinn); it occurs also in a few diminutive pet names of children, Simbi = Sigmundr, Imba= Ingibjörg. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Germans used much to write mb or mp before d or t, as sambt or sampt (una cum), kombt or kompt (venit); but this spelling again became obsolete. β. the modern High German spells and pronounces rb and lb, werben, korb, kalb, halb, etc., where the middle High German has rw and lw, korw, kalw; the modern Scandinavian idioms here spell and pronounce rf, lf, or rv, lv, e.g. Dan. kalv, Swed. kalf, vitulus; the Icel. spells with f, arfi, kálfr, but pronounces f like v. Yet in Icel. rb, lb are found in a few old MSS., especially the chief MS. (A. M. folio 107) of the Landnáma, and now and then in the Sturlunga and Edda: nay, even to our own time a few people from western Icel. speak so, and some authors of mark use it in their writings, such as the lexicographer Björn Halldórsson, e.g. álbr, kálbr, hálbr, sjálbr, silbr, úlbr, kólbr, orb, arbi, karbi, þörb, = álfr, etc.; only the word úlbúð, qs. úlfúð, is used all over Icel. γ. fl and fn are in mod. Icel. usage pronounced bl and bn, skafl, tafl, nafli, = skabl, tabl, nabli; nafn, höfn, safn, nefna, = nabn, höbn, sabn, nebna; without regard whether the radical consonant be f or m, as in nafn and safn, qs. namn and samn. This pronunciation is in Icel. purely modern, no traces thereof are found in old vellum MSS.; the modern Swedes, Danes, and Norse pronounce either mn (the Swedes spell mn where Icel. use fn or bn) or vl (Dan.), ffl (Swed.) δ. fð is in Icel. commonly pronounced as bð, e.g. hafði, hefð, sofðu = habði, hebð, sobðu; yet a few people in the west still preserve the old and genuine pronunciation vd (havdu, sovdu, not habðu, sobðu), even in the phrase, ef þú (si tu), proncd. ebðú. The prefixed particles of- and af- are often in common speech sounded as ob-, ab-, if prefixed to a word beginning with b or even m, l, e.g. ofboð, afburðr, afbindi, aflagi, afmán, as obboð, abbindi, Hm. 138; abbúð, Korm. 116; abburðr, Fms. x. 321; ablag, abmán: gef mér, lofa mér, proncd. gébmér or gémmér, lobmér or lommér (da mihi, permitte mihi); af mér (a me), proncd. abmér or ammér; but only in common language, and never spelt so; cp. Sunnan Póstur, A.D. 1836, p. 180, note * *. ε. b = m in marbendill = marmennill.

C. According to Grimm's Law of Interchange ('Lautverschiebung'), if we place the mute consonants in a triangle thus:

UNCERTAIN

the Scandinavian and Saxon-Teutonic form of a Greek-Latin root word is to be sought for under the next letter following the course of the sun; thus the Greek-Latin f (φ) answers to Icel. and Teutonic b; the Greek-Latin b (β), on the other hand, to Teutonic p. Few letters present so many connections, as our b (initial) does to the Greek-Latin f, either in whole families or single words; some of the instances are dubious, many clear: GREEK, cp. Icel. balkr; GREEK, Lat. far, cp. barr; GREEK, GREEK, Lat. f&o-short;rare, cp. bora; GREEK, cp. barki; GREEK, GREEK, cp. bifa; GREEK, GREEK, Lat. f&e-short;ro, cp. bera, borinn; GREEK, cp. byrðr; GREEK, GREEK, Lat. f&u-short;gio, cp. beygja, boginn, bugr; GREEK, Lat. f&a-long;gus, cp. bók, beyki; GREEK, GREEK, Lat. fulgere, fulgur, cp. blik, blika; GREEK, Lat. fl&a-long;re, cp. blása, bólginn, Lat. follis, cp. belgr; GREEK, Lat. fl&o-long;s, cp. blóm; GREEK, GREEK, GREEK, cp. bani, ben; GREEK, cp. barmr; GREEK, GREEK, cp. borg, byrgja; GREEK, GREEK, cp. birta; GREEK, Lat. fr&a-long;ter, cp. bróðir; GREEK, cp. brunnr; GREEK, cp. brattr (brant), brandr; GREEK, cp. brá; GREEK, GREEK, cp. brúk; GREEK, Lat. f&i-long;o, f&u-short;i, cp. búa, bjó, Engl. to be, and the particle be- (v. Grimm s.v. be- and bauen); GREEK, Lat. f&o-short;lium, cp. blað; GREEK, Lat. f&o-short;cus, cp. baka: moreover the Lat. f&a-short;cio, -f&i-short;cio, cp. byggja; fastigium, cp. bust; favilla, cp. bál; f&e-short;rio, cp. berja; f&e-short;rox, f&e-short;rus, cp. ber-, björn; fervere, cp. brenna; f&i-long;dus, foedus, cp. binda; findo, f&i-long;di, cp. bíta, beit; fl&a-short;gellum, cp. blaka; flectere, cp. bregða; fluctus, cp. bylgja; f&o-short;dio, cp. bauta, Engl. to beat; fundus, cp. botn; fors, forte, cp. 'burðr' in 'at burðr;' frango, fr&e-long;gi, fr&a-short;gor, cp. breki, brak, brjóta; fraus (fraudis), cp. brjóta, braut; fr&u-long;ges, fructus, cp. björk; fulcio, cp. búlki; fr&e-short;mo, cp. brim; frenum, cp. beisl, Engl. bridle; frons (frondis), cp. brum; -- even frons (frontis) might be compared to Icel. brandr and brattr, cp. such phrases as frontati lapides; -- f&a-long;tum, f&a-long;ma, cp. boð, boða, etc. The Greek GREEK, GREEK might also be identical to our bl- in blíðr. The change is irregular in words such as Lat. pangere, Icel. banga; petere = biðja; parcere = bjarga; porcus = börgr; GREEK, cp. bekkr; probably owing to some link being lost. β. in words imported either from Greek or Roman idioms the f sometimes remains unchanged; as the Byz. Greek GREEK is fengari, Edda (Gl.); sometimes the common rule is reversed, and the Latin or Greek p becomes b, as episcopus = biskup; leopardus = hlébarðr, Old Engl. libbard; ampulla = bolli; cp. also Germ. platz = Icel. blettr; again, plank is in the west of Icel. sounded blanki: on the other hand, Latin words such as bracca, burgus are probably of Teutonic or Celtic origin. γ. the old High German carried this interchange of consonants still farther; but in modern High German this interchange remains only in the series of dental mutes: in the b and g series of mutes only a few words remain, as Germ. pracht (qs. bracht), cp. Engl. bright; Germ. pfand, cp. Engl. bond; otherwise the modern Germans (High and Low) have, just as the English have, their braut, bruder, brod, and butter, not as in old times, prût, etc.

D. In the Runic inscriptions the b is either formed as RUNE, so in the old Gothic stone in Tune, or more commonly and more rudely as RUNE in the Scandinavian monuments; both forms clearly originate from the Greek-Roman. The Runic name was in A. S. beorc, i.e. a birch, Lat. betula; 'beorc byð blêda leâs ..., ' the A. S. Runic Poem. The Scandinavian name is, curiously enough -- instead of björk, f. a birch, as we should expect -- bjarkan, n.; the name is in the old Norse Runic Poem denoted by the phrase, bjarkan er lauf grænst lima, the b. has the greenest leaves, cp. also Skálda 177: both form and gender are strange and uncouth, and point to some foreign source; we do not know the Gothic name for it, neither is the Gothic word for the birch (betula) on record, but analogously to airþa, hairþa, Icel. jörð, hjörð, björk would in Gothic be sounded bairca, f.; the Scandinavian form of the name points evidently to the Gothic, as a corruption from that language, -- a fresh evidence to the hypothesis of the late historian P. A. Munch, and in concord with the notion of Jornandes, about the abode of the Goths in Scandinavia at early times. Thorodd (Skálda 166) intended to use b as a sign for the single letter, B for a double b, and thus wrote uBi = ubbi; but this spelling was never agreed to.

babbl, n., bábilja, u, f. a babble; babbla, að, to babble.

BAÐ, n. [in Goth. probably baþ, but the word is not preserved; A. S. bäð, pl. baðo; Engl. bath; Germ. bad; cp. also Lat. balneum, qs. badneum (?); Grimm even suggests a kinship to the Gr. GREEK] :-- bath, bathing. In Icel. the word is not very freq., and sounds even now somewhat foreign; laug, lauga, q.v., being the familiar Icel. words; thus in the N. T. Titus iii. 5. is rendered by endrgetningar laug; local names referring to public bathing at hot springs always bear the name of laug, never bað, e.g. Laugar, Laugarnes, Laugardalr, Laugarvatn, etc. The time of bathing, as borne out by many passages in the Sturl. and Bs., was after supper, just before going to bed; a special room, baðstofa (bathroom), is freq. mentioned as belonging to Icel. farms of that time. Bathing in the morning seems not to have been usual; even the passages Sturl. ii. 121, 125 may refer to late hours. This custom seems peculiar and repugnant to the simple sanitary rules commonly observed by people of antiquity. It is, however, to be borne in mind that the chief substantial meal of the ancient Scandinavians was in the forenoon, dagverðr; náttverðr (supper) was light, and is rarely mentioned. Besides the word bað for the late bath in the Sturl. and Bs., baðstofa is the bathroom; síð um kveldit, í þann tíma er þeir Þórðr ok Einarr ætluðu at ganga til baðs, Sturl. iii. 42; um kveldit er hann var genginn til svefns, ok þeir til baðs er þat líkaði, ii. 117, 246, iii. 111; þat var síð um kveldit ok vóru menn mettir (after supper) en Ormr bóndi var til baðs farinn, ok var út at ganga til baðstofunnar, Bs. i. 536; eptir máltíðina (supper) um kveldit reikaði biskupinn um baðferðir (during bathing time) um gólf, ok síðan for hann í sæng sína, 849; hence the phrase, skaltú hafa mjúkt bað fyrir mjúka rekkju, a good bathing before going to bed, of one to be burnt alive, Eg. 239. In Norway bathing in the forenoon is mentioned; laugardags morguninn vildu liðsmenn ráða í bæinn, en konungr vildi enn at þeir biði þar til er flestir væri í baðstofum, Fms. viii. 176; snemma annan dag vikunnar ..., and a little below, eptir þat tóku þeir bað, vii. 34, iii. 171; þá gengr Þéttleifr til baðstofu, kembir sér ok þvær, eptir þat skœðir hanu sik, ok vápnar, Þiðr. 129, v.l.; Icel. hann kom þar fyrir dag (before daybreak), var Þórðr þá í baðstofu, Sturl. ii. 121, 125; vide Eb. 134, Stj. 272. COMPDS: bað-ferð, f. time for bathing, Bs. i. 849. bað-hús, n. a bathing-house, G. H. M. ii. 128 (false reading), vide Fs. 149, 183. bað-kápa, u, f. a bathing-cloak, Sturl. ii. 117. bað-kona, u, f. a female bathing attendant, N. G. L. iii. 15. bað-stofa, u, f. (v. above), a bath-room, Eb. l.c., Bs. i. l.c., Þiðr. l.c., Fms. viii. l.c., Sturl. ii. 121, 167, iii. 25, 102, 176, 198. baðstofu-gluggr, m. a window in a b., Eb. l.c., Sturl. l.c. In Icel. the bathing-room (baðstofa) used to be in the rear of the houses, cp. Sturl. ii. 198. The modern sense of baðstofa is sitting-room, probably from its being in modern dwellings placed where the old bathing-room used to be. The etymology of Jon Olafsson (Icel. Dict. MS.), baðstofa = bakstofa, is bad. In old writers baðstofa never occurs in this modern sense, but it is used so in the Dropl. Saga Major :-- a closet, room, in writers of the 16th century, Bs. ii. 244, 256, 504, Safn. 77, 92, 95, 96.

baðast, að, dep. (rare), to bathe, Fms. iii. 171; in common Icel. act., baða höndum, to gesticulate, fight with the arms, as in bathing.

BAÐMR, m. [Goth. bagms; A. S. beam, cp. Engl. hornbeam; Germ. baum], a tree, only used in poetry, v. Lex. Poët., never in prose or