berserker

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English

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Etymology

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One of the four Torslunda plates unearthed in Sweden and dated to c. 6th or 7th century C.E., which were used as dies for producing decorative hammered foils.[n 1] This plate is believed to depict, on the right, a berserker or berserk wearing a wolfskin.

Borrowed from Old Norse berserkr (“Norse warrior who fights with frenzy”), probably from bjǫrn (“bear”) + serkr (“coat; shirt”), referring to the bearskins worn by the warriors. [1][2] Bjǫrn is possibly ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“brown”); and serkr from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, tie together; thread”). Alternatively, it has been suggested that the first element of the word is from berr (“bare, naked”),[2] suggesting warriors who went into battle without armour, but this is now thought unlikely.[3] Doublet of berserk.

The word was introduced in English by the Scottish author and historian Walter Scott (1771–1832) in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities (1814)[4] (spelled berserkir), and in his novel The Pirate (1822)[5] (spelled berserkar).[1] The sense “type of von Neumann probe whose mission is to exterminate alien lifeforms” was coined by the American author Fred Saberhagen (1930–2007) in 1963 in his Berserker series of novels and short stories.

cognates

Pronunciation

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Noun

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berserker (plural berserkers)

  1. (historical) A Norse warrior who purportedly fought in a trance-like frenzy; a berserk.
  2. (by extension)
    1. One who fights as if frenzied, like a berserker.
    2. (science fiction) A type of von Neumann probe whose mission is to exterminate alien lifeforms.

Alternative forms

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Translations

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Notes

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  1. ^ From the collection of the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “berserk | berserker, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 “berserker, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ See, for example, Rudolf Simek (1996) Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie, Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner, →ISBN.
  4. ^ H[enry] W[illiam] Weber, Robert Jamieson, and Walter Scott, editors (1814), English Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, from the Earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian Romances; Being an Abstract of the Book of Heroes, and Nibelungen Lay; with Translations of Metrical Tales, from the Old German, Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic languages; with Notes and Dissertations, Edinburgh: Printed by J[ohn] Ballantyne and Co., for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, page 60.
  5. ^ [Walter Scott] (1822) The Pirate, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC.

Further reading

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