Antedating of "Viking"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Fascinating, Dave, perhaps the biggest antedating of all time!  The Old English usage was not unknown to OED, since they mention it in the etymology section of the "Viking" entry, but for some reason they did not include OE citations in the entry.  Also interesting is the lack of Middle English or Early Modern occurrences.  I assume some 18th-century scholar decided to revive or naturalize the word.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Dave Wilton [dave at WILTON.NET]
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 10:39 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Viking"

I think we can antedate that by about 800 years.

>From "The Battle of Maldon" in BL Cotton Otho A. xii, probably written not
long after the battle itself, which was in 991, lines 25–26a:

"Þa stod on stæðe,     stiðlice clypode
wicinga ar."

(Then there stood on the bank, and fiercely called out
a messenger of the vikings.)

Ælfric, in his grammar, also glosses the Latin "pirata" as "wicing oððe
flotman" (viking or sailor).

There are lots of other Old English examples of the word.

Of course, it may not have been used much in the intervening centuries, but
I suspect that more searching will turn up interdatings.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 8:07 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Antedating of "Viking"

Viking (OED 1807)

1795 Thomas Pownall _An Antiquarian Romance_ 75 (Eighteenth Century
Collections Online)  These sea-rovers pursued their praedatory enterprizes,
each Vik, Vikin, or Vikinger, with one separate band, and in his own fleet.

Fred Shapiro

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