Vikings Gave Us the Word for Hugging
Hello,
Today the pre-orders on Kindle and Kobo open for my latest Wordfoolery book – “Words the Vikings Gave Us” (launching in ebook and paperback editions on 14 September 2021) so I reckon it’s time to look at a Viking word here on the blog.
I could have gone with a fighting word (berserk or ransack), a political word (hustings or ombudsman), or a modern Viking word like kindle (yes, the reading device is named with Old Norse in mind), plogging, or bluetooth (there’s a Viking king behind that one) but when I was writing the book the thing (another Viking word) which most surprised me was how many romantic words (hug, kiss, honeymoon, handfast, and husband for example) have their roots in Viking culture and their language, Old Norse.
Hug {extract from “Words the Vikings Gave Us”, copyright Grace Tierney 2021}
The word hug is, sadly, a relatively late addition to the English dictionary. It arrived in the 1560s and was spelled as hugge, at least initially. It’s believed to have come from the Old Norse word hugga which translates beautifully as “to comfort”.
Hugga itself comes from hugr (courage, mood) and is from a Proto-Germanic root which also gives us hycgan (to think or consider) in Old English and the name Hugh. There may also be a link to the German verb hegen (to foster or cherish). Hegen originally meant “to enclose with a hedge” but while a hedge may enclose or cherish livestock, the Old Norse idea of comforting is closest to what a hug means today.
{end of extract}
In the run up to the book launch (14th of Septmber) I’ll be blogging about Viking words here but if you’re interested in Viking history you may enjoy my new download “Nine Things You Never Knew About Vikings”. To access that just click on the Downloads tab on the menu or through this link. In it I explain why we all think Vikings wore horned helmets (spoiler, they didn’t), how they beat Columbus to North America by a few centuries, and ruled parts of Britain for longer than the Romans. Oh yeah, and the current Danish royal family are descended from them too. I couldn’t overwhelm the word book with Viking history but some of the stories were simply too good to exclude so they ended up in the download, which is completely free, by the way.
If you’re interested in pre-ordering a digital copy of “Words the Vikings Gave Us” you can do so via Kindle and Kobo worldwide. The Kindle US pre-order link is here. It’s around the $2.99/€2.99 price everywhere. It will download automatically to your ebook reader on the 14th. Paperbacks will go live on the same date and signed print copies will be available directly from me nearer the time. Don’t worry, I’ll post the links once I have them live.
If you are a book blogger/reviewer/podcaster (or know one, please share!) then get in touch via Twitter or my About page for a digital ARC or interview requests etc. I’m always happy to talk about the history of words.
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)
