adj.
Gaw tore; WA tore
‘hard, difficult’
(Modern English )An adjectival development of the prefix *tor- is frequent in ON but attested only rarely elsewhere in Gmc: cp. OIcel tor- ‘difficult, hard’ (as in e.g. tor-bœnn ‘hard to move by prayer’, tor-fenginn, tor-fengr ‘hard to get’, tor-taliðr ‘hard to count’), Go tuz- (only in tuz-werjan ‘to doubt’, see GED), OHG zur- (e.g. zur-triuwe ‘suspicious’), and just two instances in OE, viz. OE torcyrre ‘hard to convert’, tor-begete ‘hard to obtain’. Given the rarity of OE tor-, and the distribution of the ME adj. (see attestation), it is usual to claim at least some ON input (so OED, followed by Nagano 1962: 60, TGD, GDS, MED, McGee 353). The argument is strengthened by the striking similarity between the frequent ME alliterative formulaic collocation with tellen and the OIcel constructions torvelt at telja and tortaliðr (see esp. TGD 165n and Dance 2013: 50–1). See also toruayle.
PGmc Ancestor
*tor-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
tor- ‘difficult, hard’
(ONP )
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far tor-, Icel tor-, Norw tor-, Sw dial tor-
OE Cognate
tor- 'hard, difficult', cp. torcyrre ‘hard to convert’, tor-begete ‘hard to obtain’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC5ac
(CC4)
A N/EM and alliterative word, MED cites it from Orrm and AW.T, but it is otherwise mainly found in later ME alliterative verse (disproportionately often in DT).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 165, 719; Pe 1109; WA 5500
Both instances in Gaw in phrase ~ for to telle