This is page 776 of An Icelandic-English Dictionary by Cleasby/Vigfusson (1874)

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776 ADDENDA.

thought to be quick (i.e. live) worms; Vespasianus hafði kvikur í nösum, en þat mein kalla þeir 'vespas,' því var hann kallaðr Vespasianus, V. had 'worms in the nose,' which disease they call vespas, therefore he was called V. (sic), Post. (Unger) 155.

kvisa, u, f. a kind of bird, Edda ii. 488.

kvistr, m., add, -- kvikr kvistr, live stock; hann á eigi meir í kvikum kvisti en eina kú, Mar. 1049.

kyrfa, ð, to carve, Grág. ii. 257; cp. kurfur.

kyrra, u, f. calmness, calm, Mar. 1195.

kögðir, m. a kind of stone, Edda (Gl.) ii. 424.

kögurr, m., as to the reference Hbl. 13, add, -- the vellum has &aolig;gur, but the emendation into kögur is received by Editors; and is made certain by 'kögur-sveinn' in the same verse; but the sense and origin of kögurr in this place have been missed by the interpreters. It is indeed a well-known Teut. word. A.S. cocur, O.H.G. chochar. Germ. kocher, Dutch koker; the Dan. kogger is prob. borrowed from the Germ., as is the Icel. koffur from Luther's Bible; once on a time it was also a Scandin. word, which was since displaced by the compounded örva-malr or ör-malr, q.v.; this passage being the only place where it occurs in an uncompounded form, but it remains in kögur-sveinn, a quiver-boy, who carried the hunter's quiver(?); and in kögur-barn, Norse kogge-barn. Prof. Bergmann has, with his usual insight in Eddic matters, divined the sense when he says, p. 123, 'über den Sund zu schwimmen und dabei seinen feurigen Donner-und blitz-keil, ... im Wasser zu netzen und abzukühlen.' The fact is, Thor is here represented carrying a quiver full of thunder-bolts on his back, and so the poet makes the mighty thunder-god stop at the Sound, embarrassed, and begging to be ferried over, as he could not wade over from fear of wetting his quiver and quenching the fire, for he must 'keep his powder dry:' although in Gm. and Þd. Thor is not much afraid of the water. Whether kögurr, a quilt, be any relation to kögurr, a quiver, we cannot tell, prob. not; if so, this word should be placed under a separate head.

kör-leginn, adj. = körlægr, Post. 40.

körugr, adj. [kar], slimy, (mod.)

laga-setning, f. legislation (p. 370, col. 1); this word requires explanation, -- in old writers it means the constitution, the fundamental laws or political constitution of a commonwealth; as Ari, the historian, says, 'frá Íslands bygð, frá landnáms-mönnum ok lagasetning,' of the settlement of Iceland, of her settlers and her political constitution, Íb. (pref.); where lagasetning refers to the institution of the alþing, and the other events related in Íb. ch. 2 and 3; so also, ritaði hann (viz. Ari) mest í upphafi sinnar bókar um Íslands bygð (the settlement), ok lagasetning (constitution), Hkr. (pref.), referring to the constitutional laws of Ulfljot recorded in ch. 2 of the Icelander Book; lagasetning here exactly answers to what Konrad Maurer, by a mod. term, calls 'die entstehung des Isländisches staates.' So also of the laws of king Hakon the Good (cp. the remarks s.v. þing), lagasetning Hákonar konungs, ... hann (the king) var maðr stórvitr, ok lagði mikinn hug á lagasetning, hann 'setti' Gulaþings-lög ..., Hkr. i. 135 (cp. Fms. i. 31): again, in Ó.H. 227 it answers to the mod. word legislation (of the laws of Sweyn, the son of Alfifa), and so Orkn. 24. It is to be borne in mind that 'lög' has a double sense, viz. law in a strict sense, and in a local-political sense = a 'law-community,' legally constituted state, nearly answering to Gr. GREEK.

lang-viðri, n., add, -- langviðrum skal eyða grund, Mkv. 24; cp. Ísland eyðist af langviðrum ok lagaleysi. Ísl. Þjóðs. i. 438.

laus-lyndi, add -- fem. in Fas. ii. 124.

laus-mæli, add -- the sing. occurs in Fb. iii. 185.

laus-yrði, add -- fem. in Pr. 133, Fbr. 64 new Ed.

laut, f., add, -- this word occurs in Landn. 197 (Hjaltdæla-laut).

lán, n., add, -- ekki er lán lengr en léð er, Vídal., a saying.

ledda, u, f. a lead, plumb, a fisher's term in western Iceland.

leið-angr, m. a levy; add, -- may not this word be qs. leiðvangr = the field of the Leet, where a Leet was held? if so, it would throw light on the origin of this meeting in very remote times as being a muster-meeting or levy of the king's service: afterwards leiðangr might have come to mean the levy itself. It is indeed difficult to explain this word in any other way, esp. the latter part -angr, which usually denotes a place.

leiðanligr, adj. ductile, manageable, Post.

leiði-þirr, m. a GREEK, Haustl.; wrongly explained by Egilsson, it is evidently the A.S. lâd-þeow = a leader, guide.

leikni, f. playfulness, curiosity; göra e-ð til leiknis, Ísl. Þjóðs. i. 615.

léttis-maðr = leytismaðr (or hleytismaðr), a vicar, Post. 34.

liðr, observe, -- the passage in Hm., svá at hón lyki þik liðum, is perhaps illustrated by Chaucer's 'locen in every lith,' Nonne's Priest's Tale; embraces of witches being believed to rob a man of his manhood.

limpa, u, f. limpness, weakness, Fél. xv; það er limpa í mér, (mod.)

lík-brá, f. = valbrá (q.v.), Fél.

lím-stokkinn, part. out of joint, Þiðr. 16.

Ljósa-vatn, n. the light-water, a local name: Ljósvetningar, m. pl. the men of L., Landn.

ljós-ker, n., prop. a 'light-vessel,' a lamp (not lantern), cp. Mar. 679, 1036, 1037, Thom. 483.

ljúga, the verb, add, -- pret. pl. lógo, Post. 231; later lugu.

loða, the verb, the Clem. 24 (ERROR Post. Unger 631, read, -- fundu þeir, at hann loddi 'saman' flærð einni; the passage is therefore quite plain.

logn-alda, u, f. rolling in a calm, of a ship.

lok, n., add, -- the word remains in Engl. hem-lock.

Loki, the name of the terrible fire-demon, half god, half giant, the friend and companion of the gods, and yet their most fearful foe. We have a new suggestion to make as to the origin of this name. The old Northern Loki and the old Italic Volcanus are, we believe, identical; as thus, -- the old Teutonic form of Loki, we suppose, was Wloka, whence, by dropping the w before l, according to the rules of the Scandinavian tongue, Loki. A complete analogy is presented in Lat. voltus, vultus, A.S. wlits, but Icel. lit (in and -lit, a face); and, in point of the character of the two demons, the resemblance is no less striking, as we have on the one hand Vulcanus with Etna for his workshop (cp. the mod. volcano), and on the other hand the Northern legends of the fettered fire-giant, Loki, by whose struggles the earthquakes are caused. Of all the personages of the Northern heathen religion, the three, Oðinn, Þórr, and Loki, were by far the most prominent; but not even the name of Loki is preserved in the records of any other Teutonic people. Can the words of Caesar B.G. vi, x. xi, Solem 'Vulcanum' et Lunam. refer to our Loki? probably not, although in Caesar's time the form would have been Wlokan in acc., a form which a Roman ear might well have identified with their own Vulcanus. The old derivation from loka, to shut, is inadmissible in the present state of philological science: a Wôdan from vaða, or Loki from loka, is no better than a 'Juno a juvando,' or a 'Neptunus a nando.' May not Loki (Wloka) be a relation to the Sansk. vrika, Slav. vluku, Lith. vilkas, Icel. vargr, álfr, meaning a destroyer, a wolf? it is very significant that in the Norse mythology Loki is the father of the world-destroying monsters, -- the wolf Fenrir, the World-serpent, and the ogress Hel; and, if the etymology suggested be true, he was himself originally represented as a wolf.

lopt-hæna, u, f. a female pr. name, Landn.; prop. a kind of duck, cp. skálp-hæna (in the Addenda).

lókr, add, -- that it originally was a law term, a receiver of stolen goods, is seen from Chaucer (Coke's Tale, 51), 'there is no thief without a louk.'

lund-lag, n. temper.

lund-lagt, part. n. minded, disposed, e-m er e-t l., Post. 481, 633.

lyf-steinn, in the vellum of Korm. S. (A.M. 232) it is always spelt with y (not lifsteinn), thus Unger, who has himself consulted the vellum.

lykt, f. [Dan. lögte], a lantern, Bs. ii. 257.

lýð-skyldi, add -- fem. in Fms. x. 339 (sjá hlýðskyldi); but hlýðskyldis, 398.

lýsa, the verb, ll. 3. γ, lýsa e-u yfir, better is lýsa yfir e-u.

læri-sveinn, this word is a translation of A.S. leorning-cniht, a word used in Ælfric's English at the time when Christianity was transported from England to Norway and Iceland; at a still earlier time the English rendered 'discipulus' by 'þegn' (Gregory's Pastoral Care).

löð, f. a lathe, add -- the old form was prob. lauð, with a diphthong; the mod. form is löð, gen. laðar.

mal, n. the purring of a cat, Snót 132.

man, a bondman, add, -- mans-fólk, captive-folk, prisoners; in Orkn. 368 (Fb. ii. 486, l. 8), þeir seldu þeim silfr ok 'annat fé' is corrupted for 'mans-fólk,' as is seen from the words of the Danish translation of 1615 -- 'ok solde dennem fangerne.'

mann-bikkja, u, f. a 'man-bitch,' a term of abuse. Post. 151.

manngi, add, -- þrætta ek við manngi, Post. 230.

mann-tjón, for the gender see tjón.

man-vélar, f, pl. love-tricks, Hbl. 20.

mat, n. an estimate; the truer form is mát (like dráp, nám, gát, át, from drepa ...); the word was originally a Norse law term, and is not found in the Grág., but was, at the union with Norway, adopted in Icel., where it soon lost its long vowel; it is actually spelt maat (i.e. mát) in D.N. ii. 225 (maats menn = taxation); eptir sex manna máti, Jb.; eptir góðra manni máti, Vm.; eptir máti. id. (Mr. Jón Thorkelsson).

mat-fiskr, m. fish for food. Post.

mál-friðr should be -- a temporary peace; mod. stundar-friðr.

mási, a, m. a nickname, Fms., add -- prop. the name ot a bird; in Faroe maasi is a sea-mew; val-maasi, Uislands-maasi (= an Icelandic mew), fiski-maasi, see Mr. H.C. Müller's Færoernes Fugle-fauna (1863).

meðan, add, -- hence Dan. men = but, contracted from meden.

megin-byri, n. a fair wind, Post. 233.

mel-fluga, u, f. a moth in clothes, (mod.)

mest-megnis, adv. for the most part, (mod.)

met, n. sing. = mát, an estimate, D.N. ii. 31; lög-m., Mar. (pref. p. xxxv).

meta, the verb, at the beginning, observe, -- the subj. mæti occurs in Völs. S. 85 (Bugge's Ed.)

mey-nunna, u, f. a nun, = virgo monacha, Vitae Patrum (Unger).

mið-seymi, n., sounded misseymi, the gut used in shoe-making.