On the origin of the Norse ørhœfi, ørœfi

Abstract

This paper deals with the etymology of OWN ør(h)œfi n. ‘wilderness, desert; harbourless coast’ (NIcel. öræfi also ‘shallow [bank]’), a formation with the prefix ør- ‘out of, away from, very, un-’. Prior suggestions made by Bloomfield (: hǫfn ‘harbor’) and Holthausen (: hœfi ‘sth. that is convenient, suitable’) are rejected on phonological, morphological and semantic grounds. Conversly, it is argued that -hœfi is to be connected with OHG huoba, OS hōva ‘farmed land, farm(stead)’ so that OWN ør-hœf-i < PGmc. *uz-hōb-ija- is an exocentric formation which originally denoted ‘sth. that is away from the farmed land, undeveloped area’, thus ‘wilderness, desert’. Hence, the meaning ‘harbourless coast’ is secondary.