of+system

(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).

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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.

(-s, -ar), m.

1) the fourth part, quarter;

fjórðungr rastar, a distance of about a mile;

2) a weight = ten pounds;

3) in Iceland, one of the Quarters into which the whole land was divided (Austfirðinga, Vestfirðinga, Norðlendinga, Sunnlendinga fjórðungr).

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m., generally the fourth part, quarter, D. I. i. 470, Grág. i. 144; f. héraðsmanna, N. G. L. i. 352; f. rastar, the fourth part of a mile, Fms. viii. 63; fjórðungr vísu, the fourth part of a verse-system or stanza, = two lines, Edda (Ht.); hence fjórðunga-lok, n. the last quarter of a verse, Fms. vi. 387: a coin (cp. Engl. farthing), N. G. L. iii. ch. 13.

2. a liquid-measure = ten pots or twenty ‘merkr;’ fjórðungs-fata, a vat holding a quarter.

3. a weight = ten pounds or twenty ‘merkr,’ Jb. 375, Grág. Kb. 232, Dipl. iii. 4, Grág. ii. 362: the law allows a person to bequeath the fourth part of his property, this is called fjórðungs-gjöf, f., Gþl. 270, cp. Jb., Dipl. v. 1.

4. the Icel. tithe (tíund) was divided into four shares, each of them called ‘fjórðungr,’—to the poor, bishop, church, and priest, Grág., Tl., passim.

II. in Norway counties were divided into fjórðungar quarters (þriðjungar ridings, sextungar sextants, áttungar octants, etc.), vide D. N.; hence fjórðungs-kirkja, a quarter church, parish church, N. G. L.; fjórðungs-maðr, a man from the same quarter or parish; fjórðungs-prestr, the priest of a fjórðungs-kirkja; fjórðungs-þing, the meeting of a f.; fjórðungs-korn, corn due to the priest, D. N., N. G. L., the statutes passim; fjórðungs-ból, a farm yielding a certain rent, and many others. Again, in Icel. the whole land was politically divided into quarters or fjórðungar (this division seems to have taken place A. D. 964, and exists up to the present time), thus, Austfirðinga-, Vestfirðinga-, Norðlendinga-, Sunnlendinga-fjórðungr, or east-, west-, north-, and south quarters; each of the quarters had three or four shires or þing, and each had a parliament called Fjórðungs-þing or Fjórðunga-þing, and a court called Fjórðungs-dómar, Quarter-courts, Eb. ch. 10, Landn. 2. 12; (it is uncertain whether the writer Eb. l. c. intended to make a distinction between Fjórðunga-þing and Fjórðungs-þing, denoting by the latter a ‘general quarter parliament,’ cp. also Landn. 150.)

COMPDS: fjórðungamót, fjórðungaskipti, fjórðungshöfðingi, fjórðungsmenn, fjórðungssekt, fjórðungsúmagi.

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n. bunch, bundle (mörg spjót, er bundin vóru í kerfi).

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n. [A. S. cyrf; Scot. carf; Germ. kerbe]:—a bunch, wreath; blómstr-k.:—sina-k., the nervous system, etc. (mod.)

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(gen. pl. vikna), f.

1) week; nú lífa sumarit til átta vikna, till it was eight weeks to winter; hin helga v., Holy-week (after Whitsun); efsta v., the last week of Lent, Passion-week;

2) sea-mile, = vika sjóvar, v. sævar (Ólafseyjar liggja út á firðinum hálfa aðra viku undan Reykjanesi).

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u, f., gen. pl. vikna, pl. vikur: [this can hardly be a genuine Teutonic word, but rather is adopted from Lat. vice, otherwise the k could not have remained unchanged; thus Lat. vicus is Icel. vé, Goth. weihs: Ulf. only uses the word in a single instance, viz. to translate ἐν τη τάξει της ἐφημερίας αὐτου by in wikon kunjis seinis in Luke i. 8, where the Latin text ‘in vice sua’ perhaps suggested the word to the translator; A. S. and Hel. wica; Engl. week; O. H. G. wecha; Germ. woche; Dan. uge; Swed. wecha; in Norse dialects vika, veka, vuku, uku, and in compds -oke, Jóns-oke, Ivar Aasen.]

B. USAGES.—A week, passim: used in a peculiar manner, as marking the remaining weeks of the summer; líðr á sumarit til átta vikna, viz. till eight weeks remained before winter, Nj. 93; var Rútr heima til sex vikna, 10; vá Böðvarr Kolbein Drottins-daginn at fjórum vikum, Ann. 1376. The ancient Scandinavians and Teutons in heathen times seem to have counted the year by pentads, called fimt, as has already been remarked s. v. fimt (p. 153), to which may be added the authority of the late Prof. Schlegel of Copenhagen in a notice of 1825, mentioned in Lex. Mythol. p. 753. The time when the Scandinavians changed their system is quite unknown; it would seem that in Icel. ‘weeks’ were already in use in the middle of the 10th century, could we but trust the record in Íb. ch. 4 as authentic in its details.

II. spec. usages in the calendar; Helga vika, the Holy-week (i. e. after Whitsun), Thom. 22, Dipl. iii. 10, D. I. i. 594; Efsta-vika, the last week of Lent, i. e. Passion-week, Orkn. 386, D. I. i. 594; Páska-vika, Easter-week; Sælu-vika, Ember-week, passim, see Icel. Almanack; as also Auka-vika or Lagningar-vika, the additional week, intercalary week, = sumar-auki, see p. 604; fyrsta Sumar-vika, síðasta vika sumars, síðasta vika vetrar.

COMPDS: vikudagr, vikufrestr, vikuför, vikugamall, vikulagning, vikumunr, vikustafr, vikustef, vikustefna, vikuþing, viknamót, viknatal.

u, f. [a word quite different from the preceding, akin to vik and vík, the root word being víkja, q. v.]:—a sea mile, knot, answering to a mod. geographical mile, and equal to a ‘röst’ on land (see röst, p. 508): the term seems to have been derived from vík, a small bay, denoting the distance from ness to ness, and so referring to a time when ships coasted along-shore; the word is still in almost exclusive use in Icel. The following instances may suffice:—the distance from Reykjanes to Flatey in western Icel. is counted as three viknr (frá Reykjanesi til Flateyjar, þat eru þrjár vikur sjófar, Bs. i. 461); from Drangey in the north to the nearest point on the mainland as one vika (frá Revkjum er skemst til eyjarinnar ok er þat vika sjóvar … þat var vika sjáfar sem skemst var til lands ór eyjunni, Grett. 144, 148); eyjar þær sem Ólafs-eyjar heita, þær liggja út á firðinum hálfa aðra viku undan Reykjanesi, 125; heyrði yfir til Skarfstaða hálfa viku sjóvar (viz. from Ljárskógar), 129; for the respective distances see the map of Icel.: so in Norway, vatnið var hálfrar viku breitt, Fms. viii. 32; sigla þeir fyrir þat torleiði sex vikur sævar, Fb. i. 186: in the Faroes, þangat var skemst ok var þat þó löng vika sjóvar, Fær. 173 (viz. from the Great Dimon to Suðrey): in Greenland, hann lagðisk eptir geldingi gömlum út í Hvalsey, ok flutti á baki sér, þá er hann vildi fagna Eireki frænda sínum, en ekki var sæfært skip heima, þat er löng hálf vika, Landn. 107: great distances at the open sea are counted by ‘tylpt,’ ‘dozens, sc. of knots,’ leaving out the word ‘vika,’ þá mun siglt vera tylpt fyrir sunnan Ísland, Landn. 25: a writer of the 14th century calculates the voyage round Iceland direct from headland to headland at ‘fourteen dozens,’—fjórtan tylptir umbergis at sigla réttleiðis fyrir hvert nes, Bs. ii. 5.