adj.
?'particular'
(Modern English )The precise etymology of this adj. is unclear, but Sw and Norw dial skygg 'scared, shy, stubborn' are always cited as the closest comparanda and ON input or derivation is often invoked, if tentatively. No ON etymon survives, but some scholars reconstruct *skyggr (masc. acc. *skyggvan) < *skiggwa- < PGmc *skewwa- (see esp. Bj.-L, and cp. Heid.), next to PGmc *skēuxa (cp. OE scēoh 'shy, timid', MDu scū, MLG schiech). This provides a good formal fit for the word in Cl 21, although the sense required by the context is apparently unparalleled ('Nif he nere scoymus and skyg and non scaþe louied'). The sense of the Scandinavian words is better paralleled by ME shei (< OE scēoh) and its apparent by-form skei, with which MED groups Cl skyg. ME skei is recorded (referring to a horse) only in (1440) PParv. (Hrl 221)) and (according to MED) in ME surnames (spelt <scai>, <scay> and <skay>), and seems to show some fusion of the native and borrowed words (MED compares Dan sky and Sw skygg, and suggests that 'forms may be influenced by ME shei adj.'). OED takes ME skey as a variant of a modern Sc dial word skeigh, which also requires outside input to explain the absence of initial palatalization, but does not connect it with the adj. in Cl.
PGmc Ancestor
?*skewwa-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
(ONP )
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
cp. Norw dial skegg, Sw dial skegg
OE Cognate
cp. scēoh 'shy, timid'
Phonological and morphological markers
[Sharpening of ON /ggw/ < PGmc */ww/] (may not be applicable)
[absence of palatalization of */sk/] (may not be applicable)
Summary category
D1c
A hapax legomenon in this form, though MED identifies it with ME <skey> found in (1440) PParv. (Hrl 221) and surnames from the end of the 12c. onwards.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Cl 21