Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 111

Etymological Notes on roysni
etc.y smæra and ælabogi
W. B. Lockwood
The noun roysni n. can express two very
different concepts, the one abstract ’great
achievement or the like’, the other concrete
’gable’ - without question representing a
conflation of two etymologically distinct
words.
There will be no doubt about the antece-
dents of the former; it presupposes medieval
*reysni, a derivative of the recorded ON
rausn - with similar meanings, basically
’magnificence’. But in the sense ’gable’
roynsi is less original, having been changes
from *roysti, still present in roystisveggur, an
alternative to roysnisveggur (veggur wall),
which squares exactly with Norw. røyste,
derived from ON (Norw.) raust, both words
meaning ’gable’. The change from *roysti to
roysni we ascribe to the influence of roysin
’erect; high; steep’, an adjective with such
meanings being likely to be often employed
when speaking of gables.
The term roysin itself is first recorded by
Svabo, Ditc. fær. 669), who compared it to
Icel. »reisinn«. However, no such Icelandic
word is known, hence Chr. Matras’ query in
the Register, 109. The term isthus evidently
isolated in Faroese, but with every appear-
ance of being ancient, presupposing ON
*reysinn, which we would connect etymolog-
ically with ON reisa ’raise’, rísa ’rise’.
The foregoing has relevance for a disputed
point of Old Norse etymology, as follows.
ON rausn ’magnificence’ (above) has also a
quite different sense ’forecastle’. Falk, Wórt-
er und Sachen (1912) argued that such dis-
parate meanings indicated that two etymo-
logically distinct words has here fallen
together, in support of which he quoted Far.
roysni ’gable’ - one could reasonably postu-
late a common underlying meaning some-
thing like ’higher section of a building’.
Against this Heinertz, SKS Lund 7 (1927),
165 - we quote thereference from de Vries,
Altnord. etym. Wb., 435 - explained the
meaning ’forecastle’ simply as a special de-
velopment of the original abstract sense. It
looks as though this is right. At any rate the
Faroese word lends no support to Falk’s
view, for Far. roysni ’gable’ can have nothing
to do with rausn in any sense seeing that the
primary form is *roysti.
We next notice that another, quite unrelat-
ed word has been drawn into the orbit of the
Faroese words considered so far. This is
reystur from ON hraustr ’strong; capable;
bold’. The Faroese term has these meanings,
Fróðskaparrit 38.-39. bók (1989-90): 115-120