brauð ok smjǫr

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(dat. smjörvi), n. butter (brauð ok s.).

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an older form smör, esp. in Norse vellums, cp. mod. Dan., Swed., and Norse smör; smörs, Gþl. 99, 110, Sks. 123; smœr, id., D. N. passim: old dat. smjörvi, 623. 1; gen. pl. smjörva; in western Icel. sounded smér (cp. mjöl and mél, kjöt and ket, gör and ger), and rhymed thus, e. g. ef þú étr ekki smér | eða það sem matr er | dugr allr drepst í þér | Danskr Íslendingr, Eggert: again, sm jör rhymes with k jör, Skíða R. 104: [Ulf. smairþr = πιότης, Róm. xi. 14; as also A. S. and Hel. smere; Engl. smear; Dan. smør; O. H. G. smero; Germ. schmeer]:—prop. grease (fat, oil); þat smjör rennr af þeim hvölum, Sks. 123; við-smjör, ‘wood-smear’ = oil; smjör-bakr, smear-back, a nickname, Fms. ix, but usually,

II. butter; brauð ok smjör, Eg. 204; Þórólfr kvað drjúpa smjör af hverju strái á landinu, því er þeir höfðu fundið, því var hann kallaðr Þórólfr ‘smjör,’ Landn. 31; fraus drykkinn ok smjörit svá at eigi mátti klína brauðit, hann sá at menn sumir bitu annan bita af brauði, en annan af smjöri, hann tók smjörit ok vafði í brauðinu, svá bindu vér nú smjörit, Fms. ix. 241; mjöl ok s., Landn.; smjör ok tin, Fs. 22. The ancients used to store up butter for years, see Debes in his book on the Faroe Islands; hence, þrífornt s. = butter three years old, Skíða R. 197; fornt s., súrt s., sour, old butter.

III. local names, Smjör-hólar, in Skarð in the west of Icel., ‘Butter-hillock,’ where the lady Oluf stored her butter: Smjör-sund, Smjör-vatn, Landn., map of Icel.

B. COMPDS: smjöraskja, smjörgildr, smjörgæði, smjörgörð, smjörkaup, smjörkengr, smjörlaupr, smjörlauss, smjörpund, smjörpundari, smjörskip, smjörspann, smjörtrog, smjörtunna, smjörsvín, smjörvalr.

n. -wa-, dat. smjǫrvi; gen. pl. smjǫrva

n. bread; hleifr brauðs, a loaf of bread.

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n. [A. S. bread; Engl. bread; Germ. brod; Dan. bröd]. This word, which at present has become a household word in all branches of the Teutonic, was in early times unknown in its present sense: Ulf. constantly renders αρτος as well as ψωμίον by hlaibs; Engl. loaf; A. S. hlâf; the old A. S. poetry also has hlâf, and the old heathen Scandin. poems only hleifr, Hm. 40, 51, Rm. 4, 28. In Engl. also, the words lord, lady,—A. S. hlâford, hlâfdige, which properly mean loaf-warder, loaf-maid,—bear out the remark, that in the heathen age when those words were formed, breâd, in the sense of panis, was not in use in England; in old A. S. the word is only used in the compd beobreâd of the honeycomb (Gr. κηρίον), cp. Engl. bee-bread; O. H. G. bibrod; Germ. bienenbrod; and this seems to be the original sense of the word. The passage in which doubtless the Goths used ‘braud,’ Luke xxiv. 42—the only passage of the N. T. where κηρίον occurs—is lost in Ulf. Down to the 9th century this word had not its present sense in any Teut. dialect, but was, as it seems, in all of them used of the honeycomb only. The Icel. calls thyme ‘bráð-björg’ or ‘broð-björg’ (sweet food?); cp. the Lat. ‘redolentque thymo fragrantia mella;’ the root of ‘brauð’ is perhaps akin to the Lat. ‘fragrare.’ The transition from the sense of honeycomb to that of bread is obscure: in present usage the ‘bread’ denotes the substance, ‘loaf’ the shape; b. ok smjör, Eg. 204; b. ok kál, Mar.; heilagt b., Hom. 137; the Icel. N. T. (freq.)

2. food, hence metaph. living, esp. a parsonage, (mod.) The cures in Icel. are divided into þinga-brauð and beneficia.