Antedating of "Viking"

[Mark Mandel]

Or the OED's researchers just didn't happen across it.
Mark


On 3/20/13, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> 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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