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Tapio Salminen 🇪🇺

@oysteib Varjo = shadow, but also varjo in the sense of umbrella & parasol, parachute etc. Varjella = to protect (verb).

In all baltic finnish languages.

More kaino.kotus.fi/ses/?p=qs-artic

5 comments
Felix

@oysteib @Tabularius There's the same semantic shift in Swedish. To be "i någots skygd" is to be 'under the protection of something'. But "skygd" (which is a rare word in modern usage) has the same root as "skugga" ('shade/shadow') and originally meant something 'shaded' (from the verb "skygga", 'to shade something'). I don't know if Norwegian is similar.

Øystein H. Brekke ᚯᛦᛌᛐᛅᛁᚿ ᚼ ᛒ

@strutsulf @Tabularius We have 'beskyttelse', probably via Low German, but I never considered there might be a connection to 'skygge'!

Felix

@oysteib @Tabularius In Swedish, there's the old-fashioned "skygd" and the perfectly current "skydd" (meaning 'protection'). I would have thought they were related, but apparently not. According to SAOB (the Swedish Academy Historical Dictionary, the Swedish equivalent of OED), "skydd" is a loan from Low German (just like "beskyttelse"), while "skygd" is a Norse word. Language is continually strange.

Jim Daly

@Tabularius @oysteib Also in Irish. Scáth (shade or shadow) can also mean covering or protection. teanglann.ie/en/fgb/sc%c3%a1th

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