n., or better skaft, [A. S. sceaft; Engl. shaft; Dan. skaft; from skafa]:—prop. a ‘shaved stick,’ a shaft, missile, Hm. 127; skapti réttara, Gsp., Darr. 3, Gm. 9, Rm. 34, Fas. i. 173; this original sense is obsolete in prose (for Fas. i. 173 is a paraphrase from a lost poem), except in the metaph. and allit. phrase, skjóta skapti, Stj. 644, Odd. 22, El. 103; skjóta skapti í móti e-m, to shoot a shaft against, to withstand(cp. reisa rönd við e-m); at engi maðr mundi skapti skjóta í móti honum, Fms. vii. 210, xi. 344, Ld. 214; as also in the law phrase, skipta jörðu með skapti, to measure land with a spear, Gþl. 286.

2. of a shaft-shapen thing, a comet’s tail, Fms. ix. 482: the beam in a weaver’s loom, Darr. 2; skaptið upp af hettinum, of a high-raised hood, Karl. 178, 286: the shaft by which a top is spun, in skapt-kringla: the phrase, sýnisk mér sem hann muni ekki þar lengi gengit hafa skapta muninn, Lv. 35.

3. a handle, haft, of an axe, hammer, knife, the shaft or pole of a spear or the like; var skaptið (of an axe), svart af reyk, Eg. 183: of a spear-shaft, K. Þ. K. 96; hafði Ólafr skaptið (the pole) en Hrappr spjótið (the spear’s head), Ld. 98; sviðu … járnvafit skaptið, Sturl. i. 63; this is the common Icel. sense of the word.

II. in local names, Skapt-á, Shaft-river, [cp. the Scot. and Engl. name Shafto]; whence Skaptár-fell (sounded Skapta-fell, cp. Shap-fell in Westmoreland); Skaptar-fells-þing (sounded Skapta-fells-þing); whence Skapt-fellingar, m. pl. the men from S., Landn.; Skaptár-jökull, Skaptár-fells-jökull. 2. Skapti, a shaft-maker (?), as a nickname, and since as a pr. name, Landn.