Re: [tied] Re: Loans from afar

At 10:37:17 AM on Saturday, April 23, 2005, elmeras2000
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen"
> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>>>> cf. ON beita "let graze".

>>> What's wrong with the usual explanation of it as a
>>> causative of <bíta> 'to bite'?

>> I don't like the semantics. "Make bite"? You'd expect
>> "bite" itself to turn up in connection with grazing, but
>> it doesn't, afaIk.

> But as far as Zoëga's ON Dictionary knows it does. The
> first idiom given under bíta is bíta gras or just bíta,
> meaning 'graze'.

And Cleasby, Vigfússon, & Craigie adds to that, citing <bíta
gras>, <bíta lauf> ('leaf, foliage'), and <bíta skóg>
('wood') from Grágás and <hvar hestar þínir bitu gras> from
Vatnsdæla saga.

Brian