to drive in harness in a sledge or other vehicle

* * *

(ek, ók, ókum, ekinn), v.

1) to drive (a vehicle or animal drawing a vehicle), with dat.: gott er heilum vagni heim at a., it is good to get home safe and sound; a. þrennum eykjum, with three yoke of horses;

2) to carry or convey in a vehicle, to cart, with dat. or acc. (hann ók heyjum sínum á yxnum; hann ók skarni á hóla); a. saman hey, to cart hay; líkin váru ekin í sleða, carried in a sledge;

3) with the prep. í or á; Freyr ók í kerru með gelti; ríðr Þ. hesti þeim, er hann hafði ekit á;

4) absol., to drive in a vehicle (fóru þeir í sleðann ok óku alla nóttina); with acc. of the road (óku úrgar brautir);

5) naut., to trim the sail (aka seglum at endilöngum skipum);

6) to remove, with dat.; ók hann af sér fjötrinum, worked it off by rubbing; ók Oddr sér þar at, worked himself thither (of a fettered prisoner); a. e-m á bug or a. bug;á e-n, to make one give way, repel; intrans. = ‘akast’, to move slowly; hvárrgi ók (gave way) fyrir oðrum; a. undan, to retire, retreat;

7) impers., hart ekr at e-m, one is in great straits; ekr nú mjók at, I am hard pressed; e-m verðr nær ekit, one gets into straits, is hard pressed;

refl., e-m ekst e-t í tauma, one is thwarted in a thing.

* * *

ók, óku, ekit; pres. ek. It also occurs in a weak form, að, Fagrsk. 104, which form is now perhaps the most common. [Neither Ulf. nor Hel. use this word, which appears also to be alien to the South-Teut. idioms. The Germans say fahren; the English to drive, carry; cp. Engl. yoke. In Latin, however, agere; Gr. άγειν] Gener. to move, drive, transport, carry:

I. to drive in harness in a sledge or other vehicle (where the vehicle is in dat.), as also the animal driven; bryggjur svá breiðar, at aka mátti vögnum á víxl, ‘briggs’ (i. e. wharfs or piers,, cp. ‘Filey Brigg’) so broad, that wains might meet and pass each other, Hkr. ii. 11; gott er heilum vagni heim at aka, ‘tis good to drive home with a whole wain, to get home safe and sound, cp. Horace solve senescentem, Orkn. 464, Al. 61; þórr á hafra tvá, ok reið þá er hann ekr, in which he drives, Edda 14, Ób. adds í (viz. reið þá er hekr i), which may be the genuine reading.

β. with the prep. í; Freyr ók ok í kerru með gelti, Edda 38.

γ. absol. to drive, i. e. travel by driving; þeir óku upp á land, Eg. 543; fóru þeir í sleðann ok óku nóttina alia, drove the whole night, Fms. iv. 317. With the road taken in acc.; aka úrgar brautir, Rm. 36; báðu hennar ok heim óku (dat. henni being understood), carrying a bride home, 37. 20.

II. to carry or cart a load, ( to lead, in the north of England):—in Iceland, where vehicles are rare, it may perhaps now and then be used of carrying on horseback. The load carried is commonly in dat. or acc.:

α. acc.: aka saman hey, to cart hay, Eb. 150; saman ok hann heyit, Ísl. ii. 330; hann ok saman alla töðu sína, Landn. 94; þá tekr Gísli eyki tvá, ok ekr fé sitt til skógar, Gísl. 121; but absol., ok ekr til skógar með fjárhlut sinn, l. c. 36; þá let konungr aka til haugsins vist ok drykk, then the king let meat and drink be carted to the ‘how’ ( barrow), Fms. x. 186; vill hann húsit ór stað færa, ok vill hann aka þat, carry it away, Grág. ii. 257; líkin váru ekin í sleða, carried in a sledge, Bs. i. 144.

β. dat. more freq., as now; hann ók heyjum sínum á öxnum, carried his hay on oxen, Fbr. 43 new Ed.; einn ók skarni á hóla, carted dung alone on the fields, Nj. 67, Rd. 277.

γ. with the animals in dat., Þórólfr let aka þrennum eykjum um daginn, with three yoke of oxen, Eb. 152; or with the prep. á, ríðr Þórðr hesti þeim er hann hafði ekit á um aptaninn, Ísl. ii. 331, Fbr. 43; ef maðr ekr eðr berr klyfjar á, leads or carries on packsaddles, Grág. i. 441.

δ. absol., þat mun ek til finna, at hann ok eigi í skegg ser, that he did not cart it on his own beard, Nj. 67.

ε. part., ekinn uxi, a yoked, tamed ox, Vm. 152.

III. used by sailors, in the phrase, aka segli, to trim the sail; aka seglum at endilöngum skipum, Fms. vii. 94; bað hann þá aka skjótt seglunum, ok víkja út í sund nokkut, 131. In mod. Icel. metaph., aka seglum eptir vindi, to set one’s sail after ( with) the wind, to act according to circumstances; cp. aktaumar.

IV. metaph. in a great many proverbs and phrases, e. g. aka heilum vagni heim, v. above; aka höllu fyrir e-m, to get the worst of it, Ld. 206; aka undan (milit), to retire, retreat slowly in a battle; óku þeir Erlingr undan ofan með garðinum, Fms. vii. 317; akast undan (reflex.), id., 278; þeir ökuðust undan ok tóku á skógana, they took to the woods, Fagrsk. 174 (where the weak form is used); sumir Norðmenn óku undan á hæli ofan með sjónum, x. 139: aka e-m á bug, the figure probably taken from the ranks in a battle, to make one give way, repel, en ef Ammonite aka, þér á bug, if they be too strong for thee, Stj. 512. 2 Sam. x. 11. Mkv. 7; also metaph., aka bug á e-n, id.; mun oss þat til Birkibeinum, at þeir aki á oss engan bug, to stand firm, with unbroken ranks, Fms. viii. 412. It is now used impers., e-m á ekki ór að aka, of one who has always bad luck, probably ellipt., ór steini or the like being understood; cp. GÍsl. 54, the phrase, þykir ekki ór steini hefja, in the same sense, the figure being taken from a stone clogging the wheels; ok hann af sér fjötrinum, threw it off by rubbing, Fas. ii. 573; þá ekr Oddr sér þar at, creeps, rolls himself thither, of a fettered prisoner, id.; the mod. phrase, að aka sér, is to shrug the shoulders as a mark of displeasure: aka ór öngum, ex angustiis, to clear one’s way, get out of a scrape, Bjarn. 52; aka í moínn, to strive against, a cant phrase. Impers. in the phrase, e-m verðr nær ekit, is almost run over, has a narrow escape, varð honum svá nær ekit at hann hleypti inn í kirkju, he was so hard driven that he ran into the church, Fms. ix. 485; hart ekr at e-m, to be in great straits, ok er þorri kemr, þá ekr hart at mönnum, they were pressed hard, Ísl. ii. 132; ekr mi mjök at, I am hard pressed, GÍsl. 52; er honum þótti at sér aka, when death drew near,, of a dying man, Grett. 119 A. Reflex., e-m ekst e-t í tauma, to be thwarted in a thing, where the figure is taken from trimming the sail when the sheet is foul, Fms. xi. 121. In later Icelandic there is a verb akka, að, to heap together, a. e-u saman, no doubt a corruption from aka with a double radical consonant, a cant word. Aka is at present a rare word, and is, at least in common speech, used in a weak form, akar instead of ekr; akaði = ók; akat = ekit.