ᚹᚨᛃᛖᛗᚨᚱᛁᛉ

Proto-Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *wajamērijaz or ᚹᚨᛃᛖ- (waje- /⁠wajē⁠/, “woe”) +‎ *ᛗᚨᚱᛁᛉ (*mariʀ /⁠mārīʀ⁠/, “renowned, famous”). First element derived from Proto-Germanic *wai (“woe; evil”), identical to that of Old Norse vesall (“wretched”) and veill (“ailing, diseased”), second from *mērijaz (“renowned”), ancestor of Old Norse mærr. Compare Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌾𐌰𐌼𐌴𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wajamērjan, “to slander, blaspheme”), 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌼𐌴𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍃 (wailamēreis, “of good repute”).

The connecting vowel -ē- has been explained as progressive i-umlaut, but an i-umlauted vowel is never otherwise written with the ᛖ-rune (indeed, mārīʀ here is the ancestor of Old Norse mærr, with i-umlaut). Antonsen (2002) reads waje as wajē, the dative singular of a neuter ja-stem, corresponding to the dative singular of a *wają, compared with Sanskrit उवे (uve) and Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬫𐬋𐬌 (vayōi). He thus interprets wajemariʀ as two words rather than one, but this is a minority position.

Adjective

ᚹᚨᛃᛖᛗᚨᚱᛁᛉ (wajemariʀ /wajēmāriʀ/)

1. ill-famed, of poor repute
   • c. 200 AD, Thorsberg chape, found near Süderbrarup, Germany.

     ᛟᚹᛚᚦᚢᚦᛖᚹᚨᛉ ¶ ᚾᛁᚹᚨᛃᛖᛗᚨᚱᛁᛉ
     owlþuþewaʀ ¶ niwajemariʀ

     Wolþuþewaʀ, ni wajēmāriʀ.

     Wolþuþewaz, not ill-famed [well-renowned].

Usage notes

• This word is only attested once, in what is likely a poetic line, where it is negated. Together with the negation it literally means "not ill-famed", but this should be understood as a litotes meaning "well-renowned", "of infallible repute".

Further reading

• KJ20 in the Runenprojekt Kiel
• Antonsen, E. H. (2002): Runes and Germanic Linguistics, De Gruyter, Mouton