Þorp

Meaning of Old Norse word "þorp"

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

Old Norse word þorp can mean:þorp

þorp

n. [Ulf. þaurp = ἀγρός, once in Nehem. v. 16; A. S. and Hel. þorp; Old Engl. thorp; O. H. G. and Germ. dorf; Lat. turba is taken to be the same word: this word, we think, was originally applied to the cottages of the poorer peasantry crowded together in a hamlet, instead of each house standing in its own enclosure, like the ‘tún’ or ‘bær’ or ‘garðr’ of the ‘búandi,’ hence þorpari = a churl (see below); the etymological sense being a crowd, throng, as seen in þyrpast, þyrping (qq. v.), as also in Lat. turba]:

þorp

I. a hamlet, village, rarely of an isolated farm; fóru þau um kveldit í annat þorp skamt þaðan, … Þorsteinn hét þar bóndi, Hkr. i. 189 (in East-Norway), FmS. x. 219; margir vóru búendr þar í þorpinu, Ó. H. 151; til Níðaróss, þar var þorp nokkut sett ok kaupstaðr, FmS. x. 294; um þorp ok um bæi (Scotland), Orkn. 78; in Edda 108, þorp ef þrír eru, …

þorp

2. when used of foreign countries it means a thorp or village; borgir, kastalar, þorp, FmS. vii. 94; þorp ok tún, SkS. 631; Írar hlaupa saman í eitt þorp, Ld. 78; borg eða þorp, Stj. 96, 183; þar (in Frisland) varð brátt fyrir þeim þorp eitt ok bygðu þar margir bændr, Eg. 528: Lat. villa is rendered ‘þorp,’ Róm. 132, Hom. (St.), (= Matt. xxii. 5); þorpin stóðu á bryggjunum ok mikit fjölmenni í þeim þorpum (of London), O. H. l. ch. 10: metaph., þrætu-þorp, the abode of quarrel, i. e. the mouth, FmS. vi. (in a verse).

þorp

3. the word occurs twice in poets in the same sense as in the Goth., a land; hrörnar þöll sú er stendr þorpi á, hlýrat henni börkr né barr, Hm. 49 (here ‘þorp’ seems to mean a field, fenced place, or garden, as opp. to the ‘wood’); þrjár þjóðár falla þorp yfir meyja Mögþrasis, three great rivers fall over the field of the Norns, Vþm. 49.

þorp

II. very freq. as the second compd of Dan. local names, as -trup, or -rup dropping the t, Hos-trup, Kra-rup, Kolde-rup, Vins-trup, Sverd-rup; but in early Dan. -torp or -thorp, thus Bukke-thorp, Thume-thorp, Ny-thorp = mod. Dan. Nyrup, and in many names of places, see Dipl. Thorkel. passim; so also Engl. -thorp and Germ. -dorf: in Norway such local names are rare, in Iceland still more so, yet a Þorpar, f. pl., occurs in western Iceland, in Stranda-sýsla, called ‘í Þorpum.’ The reason is that in flat countries cottages lie closer together than in a mountainous country.

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