From 'land free of charge' to 'spiritual spotlessness': Some notes on the borrowing process behind Old Norse borrowings in English
Abstract
When the incoming Vikings decide to cease being Vikings and give up raiding for farming and local wives, a new era could be said to begin in England, which is to last for centuries: A period of bilingualism and mutual linguistic influence, the most apparent effect of which are the lexical borrowings from Old Norse.
One such borrowing, adjective sker can be in Old English traced within the Dictionary of Old English Corpus only to legal notes on land giving. Its occurrences are highly formulaic and the borrowed adjective is without exception accompanied by the native synonym sacleas. Collectively with the noun land, the phrase thus denotes land given free of charge.
It is therefore first attested in a very specialized meaning, which is not unexpected for a transferred lexeme. However, when one compares the meaning of the borrowing with its Old Norse source skírr, signifying (spiritual) cleanness, it becomes apparent that the borrowing is attested in a different sense. This involved sense shift perhaps helps further reveal a layer of Old Norse borrowings marked rather by utility than prestige associated with the language of the conquerors.
By the Middle English period, the borrowing sker has developed a sense set similar to its Old Norse source. The prolonged exposure to the source during the period of the Anglo-Scandinavian linguistic contact could thus be seen as guiding the lexeme's development in the receiving language, gradually levelling previous differences.