nykill

Middle Norwegian

Etymology

Possibly with dissimilation from Old Norse lykill (“key”), from Proto-Germanic *lukilaz. If so, it would be a doublet of lykel. The initial n- might be from an Old Norse verb hnúka (“to sit cowering”). Compare the same shift in Old Swedish nykil and Old Danish nykil (modern Swedish nyckel and Danish nøgle), but not in Icelandic lykill, Faroese lykil and also Norwegian Nynorsk lykel.

Noun

nykill m

1. a key

Descendants

• Norwegian Nynorsk: nykel; (dialectal) nykil, nykyl, nygel, nøgel
• Norwegian Bokmål: nøkkel
  • → Norwegian Nynorsk: nøkkel

Old Norse

Noun

nykill m (genitive nykils, plural nyklar)

1. Alternative form of lykill

Descendants

• Middle Norwegian: nykill
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: nykel; (dialectal) nykil, nykyl, nygel, nøgel
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nøkkel
    • → Norwegian Nynorsk: nøkkel
• Old Swedish: nykil
  • Swedish: nyckel
• Old Danish: nykil
  • Danish: nøgle

References

• “nykill”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press