--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "A." <xthanex@...> wrote:
>
> While I am here pondering the roots of various terms, can anyone
> provide the etymology of the Norse term "orlog"?
>
from Falk & Torp:
Etymologisk Ordbog
"
Orlog (warfare at sea), only in the expression 'til orlogs' and in
compounds, in Middle Danish "war"", Sw. 'örlog' ('till örlogs') and
örlig (this only as obsolete expression of war in general),
ON 'ôrlygi' "battle" borrowed from
MLG 'orloge', 'orloch', 'orlich' "war" (Dutch 'oorlog') =
OFr 'orloge'. Further ablaute in OHG 'urliugi' "war". The word is
compounded from the perpostion *us "out of" and a noun wioth the
sense "pact, agreement"; cf Gothic 'liugan' "marry",
liuga "marriage", OIr 'luige' "oath" (from *lugio-) 'Orlog' then is
propoerly the state in which the pact or agreement is broken. Partly
the same sense has Germanic *uz-laga-, properly "fate": ON orlo,g,
n. pl. "fate, life's end", OS 'orlag', 'urlagi' "fate, war",
OE 'orlæg' "fate", 'orlege' "war", OHG 'urlage' "fate, war".
"
Torsten