aurr

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *auraz (“wet sand or earth, mud”). Cognate with Old English ēar and possibly Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰𐌷𐌾𐍉𐌼 (aurahjōm), an inflection of an obscure Gothic word.

Pronunciation

• (12th century Icelandic) IPA^(key): /ˈɑurː/

Noun

aurr m (genitive aurs, plural aurar)

1. moist earth, wet clay, mud
   • Grottasöngr, verse 15, lines 5-6, in 1860, T. Möbius, Edda Sæmundar hins fróða: mit einem Anhang zum Theil bisher ungedruckter Gedichte. Leipzig, page 203:

     […] aurr etr iljar, / en ofan kuldi, […]

     […] mud tears our feet, / frost freezes our forms, […]

   • Vǫluspá, verse 19, lines 1-4, in 1867, S. Bugge, Norrœn fornkvæði: Sæmundar Edda hins fróða. Christiania, page 4:

     Ask veit ek standa / heitir Yggdrasill
     hár baðmr, ausinn / hvíta auri; […]

     I know an ash stands / named Yggdrasill
     a high tree, washed / with white mud; […]

Declension

Declension of aurr (strong a-stem)

masculine	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	aurr	aurrinn	aurar	aurarnir
accusative	aur	aurinn	aura	aurana
dative	auri	aurinum	aurum	aurunum
genitive	aurs	aursins	aura	auranna

Derived terms

• aurigr (“muddy”)
• aurskriða (“landslip”)
• aurskór (“horseshoe”)
• aurvangr (“loamy field”)

Descendants

• Icelandic: aur
• Faroese: eyrur
• Norwegian Nynorsk: aur
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: aur
• Old Swedish: ø̄r
  • Swedish: ör
• Danish: ør
• Gutnish: aur

Further reading

• Richard Cleasby, Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1874) “aurr”, in An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, page 34
• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “aurr”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 27; also available at the [https://archive.org/stream/concisedictionar001857

1. page/27 Internet Archive]