Kvikr

Meaning of Old Norse word "kvikr"

As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:

Old Norse word kvikr can mean:kvikr

kvikr

adj., also kykr, with a characteristic v, which is often retained before a vowel, so that we have two forms, kvikvan or kykvan, kvikvir or kykvir; in mod. usage this v has been dropt; [Ulf. qius = ζων; A. S. and Hel. quic; Engl. quick; provinc. Germ. queck; Swed. quick; cp. Dan. quæg = cattle and quæge; the Lat. virus, vivere, as also Gr. βίος, are according to comparative philologers, identical with the Teut. word]:—quick, alive, living, chiefly with the notion of feeling, the ‘quick,’ as opp. to the unfeeling or dead; kyks né dauðs, quick nor dead, Edda 39 (in a verse); dauðan eða kvikvan, Hallfred (kykvan, Hkr. l. c., but wrongly, as the syllable rhymes with bliks); ef allir hlutir í heiminum, kykvir ok dauðir, gráta hann, Edda 38; kvikum né dauðum, Hom. 59; ef hann sýnir eigi at þinglausnum hrossit kvikt né dautt, Grág. i. 140; ey getr kvikr kú, Hm. 69; kvöl þótti kvikri at koma í hús Atla, Am. 98; yfir þá götu | náði engi kvikr komask (no quick, no living), Sól. 1; sem á kykum manni, Ó. H. 231 (in a verse); skera e-n kvikvan, to dissect alive, Akv. 24, Gh. 17; yrða ek þik kvikvan, Am. 22; ok ertú kvik en konung-borna, Hkv. 2. 46: sem kykvir tívar, like quick men, Sighvat (Ó. H. 230 in a verse); þeir flettu hann af klæðum ok ætluðu at flá hann kvikvan, FmS. vii. 227; sem hann væri fleginn kvikr, Mork. 221; ef þá verðr nokkut kvikt fyrir sjónum þeim, FmS. i. 9; þá bauð Helena at brenna þá alla kvikva í eldi, Hom. 101; þat barn er eigi arfgengt, er kvikt er í kviði móðurinni, Grág. i. 178; hvat segir þú, kvikr Fjandi? MS. 4. 15: allit., engi kvik kind, D. I. i. 246; á kykum kvisti, 303.

kvikr

2. quick, sensitive; kykr vöðvi, the quick muscle, the quick of toes and nails; hann batt höfuð hans við slagálar sér, ok laust kykva-vöðva sínum á tönnina, er skagði ór höfðinn, Hkr. i. 100, (Orkn. 12, l. c., alters the word into ‘kálfanum,’ but erroneously; the legend of the death of earl Sigurd bears resemblance to that of Hannibal’s death, as told in Pausan. viii. 11,—τιτρώσκεται τον δάκτυλον.)

kvikr

3. lively, glad; svá verðr herrinn kvikr við þenna kvitt, at …, Al. 117.

kvikr

4. in the phrase, skríða kvikr, to be alive, swarming; þótti jörðin öll kvik skríða fyrir mannfjölda, Stj. 598: of vermin, á þessum haug lá hundrinn Argus, og skreið nú kvikr, Od. xvii. 300 (ἐνίπλειος κυνοραιστέων).

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᚴᚢᛁᚴᚱ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements