At 8:01:29 PM on Thursday, February 4, 2010, Jacob wrote:

> (P.S. In an online dictionary, I found two variations of
> the Norse word 'have': eiga, which I thought simply meant
> 'not', and hafa. What are the differences of use betwixt
> the two?)

The 'not' word is <eigi>, not <eiga>. The basic sense of
<eiga> is 'to own, to possess'; it's actually cognate with
English <(to) own>, both being from Proto-Germanic *aigan
'to possess'. <Hafa>, which is cognate with English <have>,
derives from a Proto-Indo-European root whose basic sense is
'to grasp'; many of its senses verge on 'to hold' rather
than 'to own'.

Brian