Deigja
Old Norse Dictionary - deigja
Meaning of Old Norse word "deigja"
As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:
Old Norse word deigja can mean:deigja
- deigja
- 1. u, f. a dairy-maid; this word is the humble mother of the Engl. lady, qs. la-dy (vide p. 76. S. v. brauð). A. S. hlæf-dige = bread-maid; cp. Norse bú-deigja (q. v.). Chaucer’s dey (a maner dey), and West Engl. day- (or dey-) house, a dairy. The deigja in old Norse farms was the chief maid, but still a bondwoman, n. G. l. i. 70, H. E. i. 510; öll ertú d. dritin. LS. 56, where it is curiously enough addressed to the daughter of Byggvir (bygg = barley), a handmaid of the gods; deigja seems to mean a baker-woman, and the word no doubt is akin to deig, dough, and Goth. deigan, to knead, the same person being originally both dairy-woman and baker to the farm: in Icel. the word is never used, but it survives in the Norse bu-deia, sæter-deia, agtar-deia, reid-deia (Ivar Aasen), and Swed. deja, = a dairy-maid.
- deigja
- 2. u, f. wetness, dump.
Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᛏᛁᛁᚴᛁᛅ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements
Abbreviations used:
- A. S.
- Anglo-Saxon.
- cp.
- compare.
- Engl.
- English.
- f.
- feminine.
- gl.
- glossary.
- Goth.
- Gothic.
- Icel.
- Iceland, Icelander, Icelanders, Icelandic.
- id.
- idem, referring to the passage quoted or to the translation
- l.
- line.
- L.
- Linnæus.
- n.
- neuter.
- qs.
- quasi.
- q. v.
- quod vide.
- S.
- Saga.
- s. v.
- sub voce.
- Swed.
- Swedish.
- v.
- vide.
Works & Authors cited:
- H. E.
- Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiae. (J. I.)
- Ivar Aasen
- Ivar Aasen’s Dictionary, 1850.
- Ls.
- Loka-senna. (A. I.)
- N. G. L.
- Norges Gamle Love. (B. II.)