The ambiguous phrase að ósekju

Abstract

This paper discusses the origin and history of the Icelandic phrase að ósekju (OIcel. ‘with impunity’, ModIcel. ‘without guilt, without cause’). Most handbooks have interpreted the form ósekju in this prepositional phrase as the dative singular of the noun ósekja f. ‘innocence’. Following a discussion of the evidence for the nouns ósekja and sekja and phrases with the preposition að, it is argued that it would be more appropriate to consider ósekju an Old Icelandic dative singular neuter form of the adjective ósekr ‘not convicted, not guilty’. A comparable example, the ambiguous phrase með heilbrigðu, is just as likely to be dat.sg.n. heilbrigðu of the adjective heilbrigðr (‘with (everything) safe and sound’) as the dative of a feminine substantive.