Etymology
Cp. OIcel
torfœra (fem.),
torfœri (neut.) 'a difficult, dangerous passage or road'. There is a case to be made for ON input into both of the individual elements, though resting on different criteria, as well as the compound itself.
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’. For full discussion, see
tor (adj.).
The second element of the compound < PGmc
*fōrjan (cp. OFris
fēre 'utility', OS
gi-fōri, OHG
gi-fuori 'favourable condition, utility, house') is a nominal derivation on the adj.
*fōri- (see
fere (adj.)), formed on the
ō-grade of the str. VI v.
*faran-.
PGmc Ancestor
*tor- + *fōrjan
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
torfœra (fem.), torfœri (neut.) 'a difficult, dangerous passage or road'
(ONP torfǿra (sb.)(f.), torfǿri (sb.)(n.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
OE Cognate
tor- 'hard, difficult', cp. torcyrre ‘hard to convert’, tor-begete ‘hard to obtain’; cp. fēre (adj.) (‘able (to go); fit (for military service); of ships: serviceable, seaworthy’), cp. gefēre 'accessible'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC4c
(CC1, CC5ac)