| 释义 |
▪ I. Norn, n.1|nɔːn|
Also 8–9 erron. Nornie, 9 Norne. Also with non-naturalized pl. Nornir.
[a. ON. norn (pl. nornir), of obscure etym.; hence also Sw. norna, G., Da., F. norne.]
One of the female Fates recognized in Scandinavian mythology. Chiefly in pl.
1770Percy tr. Mallet's Northern Antiq. II. 51 These [virgins] are they who dispense the ages of men; they are called Nornies, that is, Fairies or Destinies. 1855M. Arnold Balder i. 24 He has met that doom, which long ago The Nornies, when his mother bare him, spun. 1859G. W. Dasent Pop. Tales from Norse p. xli, The worshippers of Odin and the Nornir were gradually converted into votaries of the Virgin Mary. 1861F. Metcalfe Oxonian in Iceland xix. (1867) 281 Yonder float the white swans—an Icelandic story-teller would say they are Norns, presiders over destiny. 1875Encycl. Brit. I. 211/1 The three principal Norns or Nornir are Urd, past time; Verdandi, present time; and Skulld, future time. 1878P. W. Wyatt Hardrada 18 The thread of Fate By grey Nornes spun hung o'er the Raven's flight. 1959R. W. V. Elliott Runes vii. 105 Other possibilities occur to one: such as that the figures represent the Nornir, the ‘three fatal sisters’ of Northern mythology.
Comb.1886Edin. Rev. July 158 The norn-like daughters of Regner Lodbrok.
▪ II. Norn, a. and n.2
Also 7 Nourne.
[a. ON. norrœ́nn adj., or norrœ́na n.: see Norren a.]
a. adj. Norwegian. Also, of or pertaining to Norn.
b. n. The Norwegian dialect formerly spoken in Orkney and Shetland. Also formerly spoken on parts of the northern mainland of Scotland. Also the Orkney (or Shetland) Norn.
1633Orkney Witch Trial in Abbotsford Club Miscell. 151 Scho aundit in bitt, quhilk is ane Nourne terme, and to expon it into right languag is alse mikill as, scho did blew hir breath thairin. a1688J. Wallace Descr. Orkney 92 Norn, the Language spoken by the ancient Inhabitants of Orkney and Zetland. 1774Low Tour Orkney & Schetland (1879) 107 He spoke of three kinds of poetry used in Norn. Ibid. 163 One of the company all the while singing a Norn Visick. Ibid. 196 They speak the English language with a good deal of the Norn accent. 1888Saxby Lads of Lunda 210 Reciting some grand Norn veisic..after the manner of the ancients. 1932Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Oct. 712/3 Jakobsen's great dictionary of the Norn language in Shetland. 1956‘H. MacDiarmid’ Stony Limits & Scots Unbound 48 The old Norn words. 1966E. W. Marwick in J. Shearer et al. New Orkney Book iv. 25 At the beginning of the eighteenth century some of them were still speaking the old Norn language. 1966–69Saga-Book XVII. 11 In Appendix II he printed specimens of the Orkney Norn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 1972W. B. Lockwood Panorama Indo-Europ. Lang. vii. 122 Norse obliterated the Pictish of Orkney and Shetland and hastened its demise on the mainland. Known locally as Norn, the language lived on there and across the Pentland Firth in Caithness until modern times. Ibid. 127 On the Scottish mainland generally, Norn was ousted by Gaelic during the Middle Ages, except in the North-East of Caithness where it appears to have lingered on until the sixteenth century. 1970–73Saga-Book XVIII. 382 The section on the Orkney and Shetland Norn..is most noteworthy in this respect. |