undorn

See also: Undorn

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *undurniz. Cognate with Old English undern, Old Frisian undern, Old Saxon undorn, Old High German untarn, untorn, the first part of Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐍄𐍃 (undaurnimats, “breakfast, midday meal”).

Noun

undorn m (genitive undornar, plural undornir)

1. mid-afternoon, 3 p.m.
   • Vǫluspá, verse 6, lines 7-10, in 1860, T. Möbius, Edda Sæmundar hins fróða: mit einem Anhang zum Theil bisher ungedruckter Gedichte. Leipzig, page 2:

     […] morgin hétu / ok miðjan dag, / undorn ok aptan, / árum at telja.

     […] morning they named / and midday, / undern and evening, / years to count.

2. mid-forenoon, 9 a.m.
   • Bjarkö-Ret 24, in 1846, E. Hertzberg, Norges gamle love indtil 1387, Volume I. Christiania, page 308:

     […] of hafa unninn eidinn fyrr en hringi undurn at kristſkirkiu.

     […] shall have taken the oath ere the bells at the church ring at undern.

Declension

  Declension of undorn (strong i-stem, ar-genitive)

masculine	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	undorn	undorninn	undornir	undornirnir
accusative	undorn	undorninn	undorni	undornina
dative	undorn	undorninum	undornum	undornunum
genitive	undornar	undornarins	undorna	undornanna

Descendants

• Danish: unden c (dialectal)
• Norwegian Nynorsk: undorn m
• Swedish: undarn c (dialectal)

Further reading

• Richard Cleasby, Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1874) “undorn”, in An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, page 653
• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “undorn”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 450; also available at the [https://archive.org/stream/concisedictionar001857

1. page/450 Internet Archive]