This is page 96 of An Icelandic-English Dictionary by Cleasby/Vigfusson (1874)

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96 DANSKR -- DAUÐDAGll.

of-dan, það er mér ofdan, 'tis too great a honour for me; else the word

is quite out of use.

Danskr, adj., Danir, pl. Danes; Dan-mörk, f. Denmark, i.e. the

mark, march, or border of the Danes; Dana-veldi, n. the Danish empire;

Dana-virki, n. the Danish wall, and many compds, vide Fms. xi. This

adj. requires special notice, because of the phrase Dönsk tunga (the Danish

tongue), the earliest recorded name of the common Scandinavian tongue.

It must be borne in mind that the 'Danish' of the old Saga times applies

not to the nation, but to the empire. According to the researches of

the late historian P.A. Munch, the ancient Danish empire, at least at

times, extended over almost all the countries bordering on the Skagerac

(Vík); hence a Dane became in Engl. synonymous with a Scandinavian;

the language spoken by the Scandinavians was called Danish; and

'Dönsk tunga' is even used to denote Scandinavian extraction in the

widest extent, vide Sighvat in Fms. iv. 73, Eg. ch. 51, Grág. ii. 71, 72.

During the 11th and 12th centuries the name was much in use, but as

the Danish hegemony in Scandinavia grew weaker, the name became

obsolete, and Icel. writers of the 13th and 14th centuries began to use

the name 'Norræna,' Norse tongue, from Norway their own mother

country, and the nearest akin to Icel. in customs and idiom. 'Swedish'

never occurs, because Icel. had little intercourse with that country,

although the Scandinavian tongue was spoken there perhaps in a more

antique form than in the sister countries. In the 15th century, when

almost all connection with Scandinavia was broken off for nearly a century,

the Norræna in its turn became an obsolete word, and was replaced

by the present word 'Icelandic,' which kept its ground, because the language

in the mean time underwent great changes on the Scandinavian

continent. The Reformation, the translation of the Old and New Testaments

into Icelandic (Oddr Gotskalksson, called the Wise, translated

and published the N.T. in 1540, and bishop Gudbrand the whole Bible

in 1584), a fresh growth of religious literature, hymns, sermons, and

poetry (Hallgrímr Pétrsson, Jón Vídalín), the regeneration of the old

literature in the 17th and 18th centuries (Brynjólfr Sveinsson, Arni

Magnússon, Þormóðr Torfason), -- all this put an end to the phrases

Dönsk tunga and Norræna; and the last phrase is only used to denote

obsolete grammatical forms or phrases, as opposed to the forms and

phrases of the living language. The translators of the Bible often say

'vort Íslenzkt mál,' our Icelandic tongue, or 'vort móður mál,' our

mother tongue; móður-málið mitt, Pass. 35. 9. The phrase 'Dönsk

tunga' has given rise to a great many polemical antiquarian essays: the

last and the best, by which this question may be regarded as settled, is

that by Jon Sigurdsson in the preface to Lex. Poët.; cp. also that of

Pál Vídalín in Skýr. s.v., also published in Latin at the end of the old

Ed. of Gunnl. Saga, 1775.

DANZ, mod. dans, n. a word of for. origin; [cp. mid. Lat. dansare;

Fr. danser; Ital. danzare; Engl. dance; Germ. tanz, tanzen.] This word

is certainly not Teutonic, but of Roman or perhaps Breton origin: the Icel.

or Scandin. have no genuine word for dancing, -- leika means 'to play' in

general: the word itself (danza, danz, etc.) never occurs in the old Sagas

or poetry, though popular amusements of every kind are described there;

but about the end of the 11th century, when the Sagas of the bishops

(Bs.) begin, we find dance in full use, accompanied by songs which are

described as loose and amorous: the classical passage is Jóns S. (A.D.

1106-1121), ch. 13. Bs. i. 165, 166, and cp. Júns S. by Gunnlaug, ch.

24. Bs. i. 237 -- Leikr sá var kær mönnum áðr en hinn heilagi Jón varð

biskup, at kveða skyldi karlmaðr til konu í danz blautlig kvæði ok rægilig;

ok kona til karlmanns mansöngs vísur; þenna leik lét hann af taka ok

bannaði styrkliga; mansöngs kvæði vildi hann eigi heyra né kveða láta,

en þó fékk hann því eigi af komið með öllu. Some have thought that

this refers to mythical (Eddic) poetry, but without reason and against

the literal sense of the passage; the heathen heroic poems were certainly

never used to accompany a dance; their flow and metre are a sufficient

proof of that. In the Sturl. (Hist. of the 12th and 13th century) dancing

is mentioned over and over again; and danz is used of popular ballads or

songs of a satirical character (as those in Percy's ballads): flimt (loose

song) and danz are synonymous words; the Sturl. has by chance preserved

two ditties (one of A.D. 1221, running thus -- Loptr liggr í Eyjum,

bítr lunda bein | Sæmundr er á heiðum, etr berin ein. Stud. ii. 62, and

one referring to the year 1264 -- Mínar eru sorgirnar þungar sem blý,

Sturl. iii. 317) sufficient to shew the flow and metre, which are exactly the

same as those of the mod. ballads, collected in the west of Icel. (Ögr)

in the 17th century under the name of Fornkvæði, Old Songs, and now

edited by Jon Sigurdsson and Svend Grundtvig. Danz and Fornkvæði

are both of the same kind, and also identical with Engl. ballads, Dan.

kæmpeviser. There are passages in Sturl. and B.S. referring to this subject --

færðu Breiðbælingar Lopt í flimtun ok görðu um hann danza

marga, ok margskonar spott annat, Sturl. ii. 57, cp. 62; Danza-Bergr, the

nickname of a man (Stud, ii), prob. for composing comic songs; danza-

görð, composing comic songs; fylgðar-menn Kolbeins fóru með danza-

görð, ... en er Brandr varð varr við flimtan þeirra, iii. 80; þá hrökti

Þórðr hestinn undir sér, ok kvað danz þenna við raust, 317. β.

a wake, Arna S. ch. 2; in Sturl. i. 23; at the banquet in Reykhólar, 1119,

the guests amused themselves by dancing, wrestling, and story-telling; þá

var sleginn danz í stofu, ii. 117; í Viðvík var gleði mikil ok gott at vera;

þat var einn Drottins dag at þar var danz mikill; kom þar til fjöldi manna;

ok ríðr hann í Viðvík til danz, ok var þar at leik; ok dáðu menn mjök

danz hans, iii. 258, 259; honum var kostr á boðinn hvat til gamans skyldi

hafa, sögur eða danz um kveldit, 281; -- the last reference refers to the 21st

of January, 1258, which fell on a Sunday (or wake-day): in ballads and

tales of the Middle Ages the word is freq. :-- note the allit. phrase, dansinn

dunar, Ísl. Þóðs. ii. 8: the phrases, stiga danz; ganga í danz; brúðir í

danz, dansinn heyra; dans vill hun heyra, Fkv. ii. 7. Many of the burdens

to the mod. Icel. ballads are of great beauty, and no doubt many centuries

older than the ballads to which they are affixed; they refer to lost love,

melancholy, merriment, etc., e.g. Blítt lætur veröldin, fölnar fögr fold | langt

er síðan mitt var yndið lagt í mold, i. 74; Út ert þú við æginn blá, eg er

hér á Dröngum, | kalla eg löngum, kalla eg til þin löngum; Skín á skildi

Sól og sumarið fríða, | dynur í velli er drengir í burtu riða, 110; Ungan

leit eg hofmann í fögrum runni, | skal eg í hljóði dilla þeim mér unm;

Austan blakar laufið á þann linda, 129; Fagrar heyrða eg raddirnar

við Niflunga heim; Fagrt syngr svanrinn um sumarlanga tíð, | þá mun

list að leika sér mín liljan fríð, ii. 52: Einum unna eg manninum, á meðan

það var, | þó hlaut eg minn harm að bera í leyndum stað, 94; Svanrinn

víða. svanurinn syngr viða, 22; Utan eptir firðinum, sigla fagrar fleyr |

sá er enginn glaður eptir annan þreyr, 110; Svo er mér illt og angrsamt

því veldur þú, | mig langar ekki í lundinn með þá jungfrú, Espol. Ann.

1549. The earliest ballads seem to have been devoted to these subjects

only; of the two earliest specimens quoted in the Sturl. (above), one is

satirical, the other melancholy; the historical ballads seem to be of later

growth: the bishops discountenanced the wakes and dancing (Bs. l.c.,

Sturl. iii), but in vain: and no more telling proof can be given of the

drooping spirits of Icel. in the last century, than that dancing and wakes

ceased, after having been a popular amusement for seven hundred years.

Eggert Olafsson in his poems still speaks of wakes, as an eyewitness;

in the west of Icel. (Vestfirðir) they lasted longer, but even there they died

out about the time that Percy's ballads were published in England. The

Fornkvæði or songs are the only Icel. poetry which often dispenses with

the law of alliteration, which in other cases is the light and life of Icel.

poetry; vide also hofmaðr, viki-vakar, etc. In the 15th century the rímur

(metrical paraphrases of romances) were used as an accompaniment to

the danz, höldar danza harla snart, ef heyrist vísan mín; hence originates

the name man-söngr (maid-song), minne-sang, which forms the introduction

to every ríma or rhapsody; the metre and time of the rímur are

exactly those of ballads and well suited for dancing. An Icel. MS. of the

17th century, containing about seventy Icel. Fornkvæði, is in the Brit.

Mus. no. 11,177; and another MS., containing about twenty such songs,

is in the Bodl. Libr. no. 130.

danza, mod. dansa, að, to dance, Sks. 705, not in Sturl. and Bs., who

use the phrase slá danz; the verb danza occurs for the first time in the

ballads and rímur -- Ekki er dagr enn, vel d. vifin, Fkv. ii. 102.

danz-leikr, m. dancing, Sturl. i. 23.

dapi, a, m. a pool, Ivar Aasen: a nickname, Fms. viii.

DAPR, adj., gen. rs, of a person, downcast, sad, Nj. 11, Isl. ii. 248,

272, Band. 9: of an obicct, dreary, d. dagr, Am. 58; 'd. nætr, SI. 13;

döpr heimkynni, Hbl. 4, Fms. x. 214: the proverb, fyrr er d. en dauðr,

one droops before one dies, i.e. as long as there is life there is hope:

daprt böl, Pass. 44.3; döpr dauðans pína, Bs. ii. 501; döpr augu, weak

eyes, Vídal. i. 25; augn-dapr, weak-eyed; hence depra or augn-depra,

weak sight: a faint flame of a light is also called daprt, tvö döpur Ijós

sitt log, Jón Þorl. i. 146.

dapra, að, to become faint, in swimming; e-m daprar sund, he begins to

sink, Njarð. 374; more usually dep. daprask, Fbr. 160, Fas. iii. 508.

dapr-eygr, adj. weak-sighted, Bjarn. 63.

dapr-ligr, adj. (-liga, adv.), dismal, sad; hnipin ok d., Ísl. ii. 196;

kona d., a dreary looking woman, Sturl. ii. 212; d. ásjóna, a sad look,

Fms. i. 262; d. draumar, dismal dreams, vi. 404.

darka, að, to walk heavily, to trample, (a cant term.)

DARRAÐR, m., gen. ar, [A.S. dearod; Engl. dart; Fr. dard; Swed.

dart] :-- a dart, Hkm. 2 (in the best MSS.), cp. DL, where vefr darraðar

simply means the web of spears; the common form in poetry is darr, n.,

pl. dörr, vide Lex. Poët., in mod. poetry dör, m., Úlf. I. 16, 4. 47, 7.

61; the word is probably foreign and never occurs in prose. 2. a sort of peg, Edda (Gl.)

dasask, að, [Swed. dasa], to become weary and exhausted, from cold

or bodily exertion, Bs. i. 442, Fær. 185, Fms. ii. 98, Orkn. (in a verse),

Sturl. iii. 20, O.H.L. 16; dasaðr, exhausted, weary, Ld. 380, Fas. ii. 80,

Fms. viii. 55, Bb. 3. 24.

DASI, a, m. (dasinn, adj., Lex. Poët.), a lazy fellow, Edda (GL),

Fms. vi. (in a verse).

datta, að. to sink, of the heart, Fbr. 37, vide detta.

dauð-dagi, a, m. a mode of death, Ísl. ii. 220, Lv. 68, Fas. i. 88, Greg, 67.

dauð-dagr = dauðadagr, Bs. i. 643