Etymology
Various Gmc words have been cited to explain the first element of this compound (whose second component is OE
sār ‘bodily pain, wound’ (etc.)): (1) Current consensus (thus TGD, GDS,
MED) derives ME
rof from ON, cp. OIcel
rof ‘a breach, opening’ (also attested in the compound
rof-torf ‘cut sod’), formed on the zero-grade of the str. v. represented by OIcel
rjúfa ‘to break, rip up, break a hole in; break, violate; clear (of weather)’ (pp.
rofinn). A pp. in the same grade (but no other parts of a v.
*rēofan) is attested in OE viz.
rofen 'rent, broken',
berofen 'deprived', but no related n. is found. (2) Earlier commentators, taking
rof as a simplex, explain it as a n. related (in an unspecified manner) to
ryue (v.) (thus Morris, Kullnick 16). Emerson (1922: 407-8) offers an unattested OE
*rāf ‘scratch, tear, rend’, perhaps suggesting an
a-grade derivative on the root of
ryue, but there are no analogous nouns elsewhere in Gmc (see Seebold). (3) There are other early Gmc words that could explain the form of ME
rof, but none is a good match for the sense in context. Thus (a) MDu
rōve, MLG
rōve could be connected with the the word with the same meaning given in
MED s.v. rǒve n.,
OED3 s.v. rove n.2, ‘scabbiness of the skin; a scab, the crust of a healed or healing wound; a rind, a hardened outer crust’, which occurs in English from the mid-15c and probably represents a PGmc
*hrufōn, ultimately related to the PGmc adj.
*hreuba- (or
*hreufa-) (as in OE
hrēof ‘rough, scabby, leprous’, OIcel
hrjúfr ‘rough, rugged to the touch; scabby, scurvy’ etc.). However, the meaning 'scab (or a healing wound)' would not fit the context in
Gaw. (b) A still less plausible connection is the OE adj.
rōf ‘vigorous, strong, great, noble, renowned’ (cp. OS
rōf; the ulterior etymology is unclear). However in OE its use is restricted to poetry and always signals the heroic virtue of a person and there is no other evidence, moreover, that this word survived the OE period.
PGmc Ancestor
(1) *rof-; (2)?*raif-; (3a) *hrufōn, (3b) ?*rōf-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
(1) rof ‘a breach, opening’
(ONP (1) rof (sb.); (2) rífa (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
(1) Far rov, Icel rof, Norw rov; (2) Far ríva, Icel rífa, Norw riva, Dan rive, Sw riva
OE Cognate
(1) cp. rofen (pp.) 'rent, broken', berofen (pp.) 'deprived'; (2) *rāf ‘scratch, tear, rend’; (3b) rōf (adj.) ‘vigorous, strong, great, noble, renowned’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
D1c