lest

* * *

1) burden, cargo;

2) train of packhorses.

* * *

f. [cp. Engl. last, as in Orkneys and East Angl. ‘a last of herrings,’ and Old Engl. lastage = freight; Germ. last; Dan. læst], a last, burden, a measure of ship’s burden, reckoned at twelve ‘skippund,’ D. N. iv. 651, Bs. i. 545, Gþl. 371, B, K. 20, 89, MS. 732. 16 (where wrongly ten for twelve); lest gulls, Fms. xi. 351, where = talentum (?); lest járns, harðsteins, D. N.; lest síldar, N. G. L. passim: a cargo, Jb. 386. In mod. usage the tonnage of Dan. and Norse ships is counted by læster.

II. in Icel. sense, a caravan of loaded pack-horses, Grett. 119: plur. lestir, the market season in June and July.

COMPDS: lestamaðr, lestatal.

f. reading, a lesson; meðan lestin verðr lesin, Stat. 299, N. G. L. i. 390.

1. vlak

2. řada

[lεstʰ]

I. f lestar, lestir

1) ноша; груз

2) трюм

3) ласт (мера корабельного груза, равная 2 тоннам)

II. f lestar, lestir

1) караван

2) поезд

3) отряд

1) ноша, груз

2) караван

a, m. a ‘caravan-driver,’ a steward, Sturl. i. 74; sendimaðr eða lestreki, iii. 128, Bs. i. 848, 872.

[r̥aðlεstʰ]

f. [lesa], a legend of the saints, N. G. L. i. 347.

(að), v. to delay; þá mun of seinat, then it will be to late.

* * *

að, [Ulf. sainjan = βραδύνειν; Germ. sehnen, but only in a metaph. sense]:—to delay, slacken; skynda skal hverr sem einn at snúask til Guðs meðan hann má, at eigi seini hann, lest he be too late, Hom. 13: seina e-u, to delay; verðr mein ef því seinum, Leiðarv. 39: s. at hróðri, to lag with his verses, Orkn. (in a verse).

2. esp. in the part. seinat, too late, mun nú eigi um seinat at flýja, Fms. viii. 162; of seinat hefir þú at segja, thou hast delayed too long. Fas. i. 196; ok er þó of seinat, Ld. 144, Fms. ii. 195; svá at eigi verði seinat, lest it be too late, xi. 114; seinat er nú, systir, at samna Niflungum, Akv. 17.

(-ar, -ir, acc. -u), m.

1) custom, habit (þat mun hér vera s., at menn ganga vápnlausir fyrir konung);

2) conduct, moral life (spilla ill mál góðum siðum);

3) religion, faith; inn forni s., the ancient (heathen) faith; inn nýi s., the new (Christian) faith; kristinn s., the Christian religion; heiðinn s., heathenism; í fornum sið, in the olden, or heathen, times.

* * *

compar., answering to síð, q. v. [cp. Goth. seiþs = later]:—less: litlu síðr (síðarr Ed.) en hann, little less than he, Fb. ii. 23; er menn eigu síðr sakir við menn, Grág. ii. 137; á þeirra dómr at rofna er síðr hafa at lögum dæmt, i. 80; hann var kærr konungi, ok eigi síðr dróttningu, Fms. i. 99; eigi síðr enn þú, 216, x. 179 (in a verse); eigi síðr en í harðræðum, Nj. 263, Fb. ii. 38; engu síðr, no less, Fms. vi. 92; miklu síðr, viii. 21; en at síðr vóru menn sjálfráði fyrir honum, at…, it was so far from it, that even … (cp. Dan. end-sige, changing ð into g), Ó. H. 34; er þér at síðr fært með þessi orðsendingu, at ek hygg at…, 53; eigi at síðr, not the less; þeir héldu fram ferð sinni eigi at síðr, all the same, Fms. i. 228; eigi héldu Væringjar at síðr til bardaga, Fb. ii. 381; eigi því síðr, not the less, Stj. 158; þykki þér athygli vert, bóndi, hvar krákan flýgr?—Eigi er þat síðr, segir bóndi, not the less! (i. e. yes) said the man, Fms. vi. 446.

2. as a conjunction, lest; síðr þú Ásum öfund um gjaldir, Ls. 12; síðr oss Loki kveði lusta-stöfum, 10; síðr þitt (þic?) um heilli halir, lest men bewitch thee, Hm. 130.

II. superl. sízt, the least; er oss gegnir sízt, Fms. viii. 21; sem sízt, not in the least, Eluc. 122 (Ed.), passim.

n. [Dan. skib-pund], a weight; fjórar vættir ok tuttugu skulu göra s., Gþl. 523; tíu s. í lest, tólf lestir í áhöfn, 732. 16; but, tólf s. í lest, Bs. i. 545; hann kvað á at ekki s. skyldi vera dýrra en hundrað vaðmála, Fms. vi. 266; sex s. af gulli, six talents of gold, vii. 96.

f. the freight or loading of a ship, Fas. ii. 511: used to express a kind of tonnage; tíu skippund í lest, tólf lestir í á., 732. 16: luggage, Jb. 377, 394, 408: cp. Pál Vídal. s. v.

* * *

(gríp; greip, gripurn; gripinn), v.

1) to grasp, seize (hann greip sverð sitt á skjöld);

2) to seize upon (grípa góz fyrir mönnum);

3) with preps.:

grípa á e-u, to catch hold of (H. greip á stafni);

grípa á kýlinu, to touch upon a sore place;

grípa til e-s, to seize (grípa til sverðsins);

greip hundrinn til hans, the dog snapped at him;

grípa upp, to catch up (Loki greip upp mikla stöng);

grípa við orði, to commence speaking.

* * *

greip, gripu, gripit, [Ulf. greipan = κρατειν, λαμβάνειν; A. S. grîpan; Engl. grip, gripe, grapple; O. H. G. grîfan; Germ. greifen; Swed. gripa; Dan. gribe]:—to grasp, seize:

1. with the notion of suddenness or violence; hann greip skjöld sinn ok sverð, Ó. H. 117; konungr greip til sverðs þess er stóð hjá honum, Fms. i. 16, vi. 159; Egill kastaði þegar niðr horninu, en greip sverðit ok brá, Eg. 215; Egill greip þá skjótt meðalkafla sverðsins, 379; síðan greip hann til Egils, 192; hann greip upp Þórð ok keyrði niðr, id.; Ormr grípr þá í móti fleininum, Fb. i. 530; hann greip upp beiti-ásinn ok barði með, 491; hann greip til hans ( the dog snaps at him) um sinn ok reif kviðinn, Fms. ii. 174; hann grípr nárann, Anal. 122.

2. to capture, seize; gripinn, and gripinn höndum, captured, Hom. 131, Pass. 6. 12, 9. 1, 11. 1.

β. to seize upon, rob; þat er mér sagt at þú farir heldr óspaklega ok grípir fyrir mönnum góðs sitt, Grett. 130 (grip-deildir).

γ. to grasp; hann greip á stafni, Hým. 27.

3. phrases, grípa gulli á við e-n, to coax one; at svá þykki ( lest it shall seem) at ek grípa gulli á við þá, Nj. 6; ok gríp nú gulli á við konunginn, ok lát sem þú þykisk þar allt eiga er konungrinn er, Fms. xi. 112; grípa á kýlinu, to touch upon the sore place; Eysteinn konungr svarar, nú greiptu á kýlinu því er ek hugða at fyrir löngu myndi springa, vii. 121: grípa í tómt, to grasp the air (cp. when the bird is flown): grípa á e-u, to decide; hann kvaðsk ekki mundu svá skjótt grípa á slíku, he said he would take time to consider, xi. 362.

4. medic. of fits or sickness, to seize upon; þitt geð grípi, seize thy senses (of insanity)! Skm.; þá var hann gripinn af æði mikilli, 623. 12.

II. metaph. to understand, very rare and borrowed from Lat. comprehendere, Sks. 559 C, Eluc. 21: in mod. usage, to grasp, encompass with the mind; but nema, to learn.

III. reflex., grípask þeir þá til ( they grasped at one another) ok glíma lengi, Fb. i. 530.

* * *

(að), v. to forsake, abandon, with dat. (hafna fornum sið, blótum ok heiðnum góðum);

kýr hafnaði átinu, the cow left off eating.

* * *

að, to forsake, abandon, with dat.; hafna blótum ok heiðnum goðum, Fms. i. 33; h. fornum sið, Eb. 12; h. fornum átrúnaði, Anal. 141; h. fjándanum, K. Á. 74; h. líkamligum lystingum, 671. 4; h. boðum e-s, to disobey one’s orders, Andr. 65; h. ráði e-s, Al. 166; kýr hafnaði átinu, the cow left off eating, Bs. i. 194; ef hann hafnaði sínum úkynnum, Fms. v. 218; opt hafnar mær manni fyrir litla sök, MS. 4. 6; áðr ek þér hafna, lest I forsake thee, Korm. 50 (in a verse); h. hungri, poët. to feast, Fms. xi. 138 (in a verse); h. fjörvi, to die, Hkr. i. (in a verse); h. nafni e-s, to disown one, Hallfred; hafnið Nefju nafna, ye forsake ( disgrace) the namesake of Nefja, Hkr. i. (in a verse); fyrir-litinn eða hafnaðr, Stj. 157, 173: part. hafnandi forsaking, Sks. 3.

II. reflex. of cows and ewes, to conceive, to calve, lamb.

III. hafna, að, to come to anchor; or hafna sig, id.

(pl. hundruð), n. hundred; tírœtt h. = 100; tólfrœtt h. = 120; hundruðum, by (in) hundreds; as value, one hundred and twenty ells of the stuff wadmal; h. frítt, a hundred paid in cattle; tólf hundruð mórend, twelve hundred in dark-striped wadmal; hundrað silfrs, ? the silver value of 120 ells (= 20 ounces).

* * *

n. pl. hundruð; the form hund- (q. v.) only occurs in a few old compd words: [Goth. hunda, pl.; A. S. hund; O. H. G. hunt; the extended form in Hel. and old Frank, hundered; Germ. hundert; Dan. hundrede; Swed. hundra; the inflexive syllable is prob. akin to - ræðr in átt-ræðr]:—a hundred; the Scandinavians of the heathen time (and perhaps also all Teutonic people) seem to have known only a duo-decimal hundred (= 12 × 10 or 120); at that time 100 was expressed by tíu-tíu, cp. Ulf. taihun-taihund = ten-teen; Pal Vídalín says,—hundrað tólfrætt er sannlega frá heiðni til vor komið, en hið tíræða er líkast að Norðrlönd hafi ekki vitað af fyrr en Kristni kom hér og með henni lærdómr þeirrar aldar, Skýr. s. v. Hundrað (fine): but with the introduction of Christianity came in the decimal hundred, the two being distinguished by adjectives,—tólfrætt hundrað = 120, and tírætt hundrað = 100. But still the old popular duodecimal system continued in almost all matters concerned with economical or civil life, in all law phrases, in trade, exchange, property, value, or the like, and the decimal only in ecclesiastical or scholastic matters (chronology, e. g. Íb. ch. 1, 10). At the same time the word in speech and writing was commonly used without any specification of tírætt or tólfrætt, for, as Pal Vídalín remarks, every one acquainted with the language knew which was meant in each case; even at the present time an Icel. farmer counts his flocks and a fisherman his share (hlutr) by the duodecimal system; and everybody knows that a herd or share of one hundred and a half means 120 + 60 = 180. In old writers the popular way of counting is now and then used even in chronology and in computation, e. g. when Ari Frode (Íb. ch. 4) states that the year consists of three hundred and four days (meaning 364); the census of franklins given by the same writer (where the phrase is hundruð heil = whole or full hundreds) is doubtless reckoned by duodecimal, not decimal hundreds, Íb. ch. 10; and in the census of priests and churches taken by bishop Paul (about A. D. 1200) ‘tíræð’ is expressively added, lest duodecimal hundreds should be understood, Bs. i. 136. The Landn. (at end) contains a statement (from Ari?) that Iceland continued pagan for about a hundred years, i. e. from about 874–997 A. D. In the preface to Ólafs S., Snorri states that two duodecimal hundreds (tvau hundruð tólfræð) elapsed from the first colonisation of Iceland before historical writing began (i. e. from about A. D. 874–1115): levies of ships and troops are in the laws and Sagas counted by duodecimal hundreds, e. g. the body-guard of king Olave consisted of a hundred hirð-men, sixty house-carles and sixty guests, in all ‘two hundred’ men, i. e. 240, Mork. 126; the sons of earl Strút-Harald had a hundred men, of whom eighty were billetted out and forty returned, Fms. xi. 88, 89; hálft hundrað, a half hundred = sixty, Mork. l. c.

2. a division of troops = 120; hundraðs-flokkr, Fms. vi. (in a verse).

II. in indef. sense, hundreds, a host, countless number, see hund-, as also in the adverb, phrase, hundruðum, by hundreds (indefinitely), Fms. vi. 407, Þiðr. 275, 524: in mod. usage as adjective and indecl., except the pl. in -uð, thus hundruð ásauðum, Dipl. iv. 10.

B. As value, a hundred, i. e. a hundred and twenty ells of the stuff wadmal, and then simply value to that amount (as a pound sterling in English). All property, real as well as personal, is even at present in Icel. taxed by hundreds; thus an estate is a ‘twenty, sixty, hundred’ estate; a franklin gives his tithable property as amounting to so and so many hundreds. As for the absolute value of a hundred, a few statements are sufficient, thus e. g. a milch cow, or six ewes with lambs, counts for a hundred, and a hundrað and a kúgildi (cow’s value) are equal: the charge for the alimentation of a pauper for twelve months was in the law (Jb. 165) fixed to four hundred and a half for a male person, but three hundred and a half for a female; cp. also the phrase, það er ekki hundrað í hættunni, there is no hundred at stake, no great risk! In olden times a double standard was used,—the wool or wadmal standard, called hundrað talið = a hundred by tale, i. e. a hundred and twenty ells as stated above, and a silver standard, called hundrað vegit, a hundred by weight, or hundrað silfrs, a hundred in silver, amounting to two marks and a half = twenty ounces = sixty örtugar; but how the name hundred came to be applied to it is not certain, unless half an örtug was taken as the unit. It is probable that originally both standards were identical, which is denoted by the phrase, sex álna eyrir, six ells to an ounce, or a hundred and twenty ells equal to twenty ounces (i. e. wadmal and silver at par); but according as the silver coinage was debased, the phrases varied between nine, ten, eleven, twelve ells to an ounce (N. G. L. i. 80, 81, 387, 390, passim), which denote bad silver; whereas the phrase ‘three ells to an ounce’ (þriggja álna eyrir, Sturl. i. 163, passim, or a hundred in wadmal equal to half a hundred in silver) must refer either to a double ell or to silver twice as pure: the passage in Grág. i. 500 is somewhat obscure, as also Rd. 233: the words vegin, silfrs, or talin are often added, but in most cases no specification is given, and the context must shew which of the two standards is there meant; the wool standard is the usual one, but in cases of weregild the silver standard seems always to be understood; thus a single weregild (the fine for a man’s life) was one hundred, Njála passim.

2. the phrases, hundrað frítt, a hundred paid in cattle, Finnb. 236; tólf hundruð mórend, twelve hundred in dark striped wadmal, Nj. 225; hundrað í búsgögnum ok í húsbúningi, Vm. 65; hundraðs-gripr, hestr, hross, kapall, hvíla, sæng, rekkja, psaltari, etc., a beast, a horse, a bed, etc., of a hundred’s value, Am. 2, 10, Vm. 25, 39, 60, 153, Jm. 3, 30; hundraðs-úmagi, a person whose maintenance costs a hundred, Vm. 156; hundraðs virði, a hundred’s value, 68. For references see the Sagas and laws passim, and for more information see Mr. Dasent’s Essay in Burnt Njal.

C. A hundred, a political division which in olden times was common to all Teut. nations, but is most freq. in old Swedish laws, where several hundreds made a hérað or shire; cp. the A. S. and Engl. hundred, Du Cange hundredum; old Germ. hunderti, see Grimm’s Rechts Alterthümer; the centum pagi of Caesar, Bell. Gall. iv. ch. 1, is probably the Roman writer’s misconception of the Teut. division of land into hundreds; this is also the case with Tacit. Germ. ch. 12: cp. the Swed. local names Fjaðrunda-land, Áttundaland, and Tíunda-land, qs. Fjaðr-hunda land, Átthunda land, Tíhunda land, i. e. a combination of four, eight, ten hundreds. The original meaning was probably a community of a hundred and twenty franklins or captains. This division is not found in Icel.

n. a scoop or basket for herring-fishing; með hverfum ok roð-háfum, Gþl. 427; en hverr er síld fiskir … greiði hann hverf af lest hverri, N. G. L. i. 140.

(-sta, -str), v. to injure, damage (l. skip sitt);

refl., lestast, to be injured, damaged (féll hann af baki ok lestist fótr hans).

* * *

t, [Lat. laedere, by Grimm’s law, t for d], to break up, injure, wreck; lesta skip, to wreck one’s ship, Eg. 159; lesta hús at lásum eða viði, Grág. ii. 110: impers. to be wrecked, ok lesti þar skipit, Fms. x. 158; þá er bæði ( both ships) lesti Hjálp ok Fífu, Orkn. (in a verse).

2. metaph. to break, violate; lesta lög, Skálda (in a verse).

II. reflex. to be damaged; ef kirkja brennr upp ok lestisk, K. Þ. K. 42; bogi þeirra lestisk, 623. 31; þá lestisk ráin, Grett. 86; féll hann af baki ok lestisk fótr hans, Fb. i. 538; skip lestisk, Grág. ii. 268: part., ok lest ( broken) svá skip hans at eigi væri fært, Fær. 116; hestr er lestr, haukr er daudr, Maurer’s Volks. 321.