Thanks to a MetaFilter thread of dhartung‘s, I’ve discovered the online version of Zoëga’s Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic. Not a classic work of lexicography like Platts, but a useful one, and I’ve been wanting a copy for quite a while. Chalk another one up for the internet.
Update (Dec. 2019). That link is dead, but thanks to juha here are working ones: Zoega, Cleasby-Vigfusson.
This is really perplexing, I thought I have linked to the dictionary but apparently I haven’t. I have used the online version for a long time… And I have a paper copy too. It’s a neat little volume with quite a lot of info. If you’re looking for a classic work of lexicography, I recommend Cleasby-Vigfusson.
Absolutely. Now who’ll put Cleasby-Vigfusson online?
Zoëga at Perseus.
Akismet doesn’t like two links without other text.
Cleasby-Vigfusson.
Randomly picked a page and found this gem:
aust-maðr, m., pl. austmenn, in Icel. and in the northern part of the British Islands a standing name of those who came from the Scandinavian continent, esp. Norse merchants, vide the old Irish chronicles, and the Sagas, passim. The English used ‘ easterling’ in the same sense, and sterling is an abbreviation of the word from the coin which the ‘easterlings’ brought with them in trade.
pound easterling, who would have thought…
Zoega+C-V+Berkov:
https://norse.ulver.com/index.html
Thanks very much! Here are direct links: Zoega, Cleasby-Vigfusson.
SFR: pound easterling, who would have thought…
Not me, that’s who. Thanks!
pound easterling, who would have thought…
Alas, too good to be true. OED (emphasis added):
AHD: [Middle English, silver penny : possibly sterre, star; see STAR + –ling, diminutive suff. (from the small star stamped on the coin); see -LING1.]