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F
F (eff), the sixth letter, was in the Gothic Runes, on the Bracteats, and on the stone in Tune, marked RUNE, a form evidently derived from the Greek and Latin; hence also comes the Anglo-Saxon RUNE called feoh, and in the Scandinavian Runes RUNE called fé (=fee, money), fé veldr frænda rógi, Rkv. I. The Runic alphabet makes f the first letter, whence this alphabet is sometimes by modern writers called Fuþork. The first six letters are called Freys-ætt, the family of Frey; perhaps the Goths called this Rune Frauja = Freyr, the lord. Only in very early Icel. MSS. is the old Latin form of f used: at the beginning of the 13th century the Anglo-Saxon form RUNE (derived from the Rune) prevailed; and it was employed in printed Icel. books till about A. D. 1770, when the Latin f came into use. In very early MSS. ff and ft are very difficult to distinguish from ff and ft. Emendations may sometimes be made by bearing this in mind, e. g. hóstú, Am. 95, should clearly be read hóftú = hóft þú, from hefja, -- proving that this poem was in writing not later than about A. D. 1200, when the Anglo-Saxon letter was introduced.
A. PRONUNCIATION. -- At the beginning of a syllable always sounded as Engl. f; but as a medial and final, it is often pronounced and sometimes spelt v, especially after a vowel, so that in af, ef, lauf, gefa, hafa, grafa, lifa, líf, gröf, f is pronounced like the v, as in Engl. grave. Foreign proper names, Stefan (Stephen), etc., are exceptions, where f not initial has an aspirate sound. For the exceptional spelling of f as b vide introduction to B, (pp. 48, 49.) The Icel. dislike a double f sound, which is only found in a verv few modern foreign words, such as kaffe, coffee; straff, Germ, strafe, punishment; koffort, a box (from French or Germ.); offur, an offer; skoffin, a monster; skeffa, a 'skep' or bushel; skúffa, a drawer; eff, the name of the letter itself, cp. Skálda 166.
B. SPELLING: I. as an initial the spelling never changes; as medial and final the form f is usually retained, as in álfr, kálfr, sjálfr, silfr, arfr, orf, úlfr, etc., af, gaf, haf, etc., although the sound is soft in all these syllables. Some MSS. used to spell fu, especially after an l, sialfuan (ipsum), halfuan (dimidium), etc.; in the 14th century this was common, but did not continue; in Swedish it prevailed, hence the mod. Swed. forms gifva, drifva, etc. II. the spelling with f is against the true etymology in many cases, and here also the spelling differs; this is especially the case with the final radical v or u (after a vowel or after l or r), which, being in some cases suppressed or obsolete, reappears and is differently spelt; thus, örfar, arrows (from ör); snjófar (nives), snow, and snjófa, to snow (from snjór); háfan (acc.), high (from hár); mjófan, thin (from mjór); sæfar (gen.), the sea (from sær): the partly obsolete dat. forms ölvi, mjölvi, Mávi, bölvi, heyvi, hörvi, smjörvi, lævi from öl (ale), mjöl (meal), hey (hay), etc. are also spelt ölfi ... heyfi, cp. e. g. Eb. 94 new Ed. note 8: so also adjectives, as örfan (acc. from örr), liberal: nouns, as völfa or völva, a prophetess. III. the spelling with pt in such words as, aptan, evening; aptr, after; leiptr, lightning; dript, drift; dupt, Germ. duft; heipt, cp. Germ. heftig; kraptr, Germ. kraft;; aptari, eptri, = aftari, eftri, aft, behind; eptir, after; skipta, to shift; lopt, Germ. luft; kjöptr, Germ. UNCERTAIN; opt, often; nipt (from nefi), a sister; hapt, a haft, hepta, to haft; gipta, a gift; raptr, a rafter; tópt, cp. Engl. toft, Dan. toft; skapt, Engl. shaft, Dan. skaft; þopta, Dan. tofte, -- is against the sense and etymology and is an imitation of Latin MSS. The earliest MSS. and almost all Norse MSS. use ft, and so also many Icel. MSS., e. g. the Flateyjar-bók, Hauks-bók, etc.; pt, however, is the regular spelling, and hence it came into print. The present rule appears to be to use pt wherever both consonants are radicals, but ft if the t be inflexive -- thus haft, part. from hafa, líft from lifa, hlíft from hlífa; but in speaking pt and ft are both sounded alike, regardless of etymology, viz. both as ft or vt with a soft f sound; hence phonetic spelling now and then occurs in MSS., e. g. draft -- drapt, from drepa, Fb. i. 149; efðe = æpði = æpti, from æpa, to weep, Bs. i. 342; keyfti, from kaupa, Greg. 50; steyfti, from steypa. β. a digraph fp or pf occurs a few times in MSS., efptir, 673 A. 2; lopfti = lopti, Greg. 72 (vide Frump. 100), but it never came into use; it reminds one of the pf which in modern German is so frequent: fm -- f or m, e. g. nafm -- nafn or namn, Mork. 60 and N. G. L. passim; fft=ft also occurs in old MSS.
C. CHANGES. -- The final soft Icel. f answers to Engl. f, ve, e. g. Icel. líf = Engl. life, but Icel. lifa = Engl. to live; gefa, to give; hafa, to have; leifa, to leave. Again, the spurious Icel. f (B. II) usually answers to Engl. w or the like, e. g. örfar = Engl. arrow; snjófar = Engl. snow; már náfi, cp. Engl. mew; Icel. nær (the v is here suppressed), cp. Engl. narrow; Icel. lævi, cp. Engl. lewd, etc. etc. In Danish the soft f is usually spelt with v, e. g. halv, kalv, hav, give, love, sove, -- Icel. hálfr, kálfr, haf, gefa, lofa, sofa, whereas the Swedes frequently keep the f. In German a final b answers to Icel. f; Germ. geben = Icel. gefa, Engl. give; Germ. kalb, erbe, = Icel. kalfr, arfi, etc., see introduction to B. Again, in German a final f or ff answers to Icel. and Engl. p, e. g. Germ. lauf =Icel. hlaup, Engl. leap; Germ. kauf = Icel. kaup, Engl. cheap; Germ. schiff = Icel. skip, Engl. ship, also skiff; Germ. treff = Icel. drep; Germ. tief = Icel. djúpr, Engl. deep; Germ. haufen = Icel. hópr, Engl. heap; Germ. rufen = Icel.hrópa; Germ. schaffen = Icel. skapa, Engl. shape; Germ. saufen = Icel. súpa, Engl.
to sup; Germ. UNCERTAIN = Icel. huppr, Engl. hip; Germ. greifen = Icel. grípa, Engl. to grapple, grip; Germ. gaffen = Icel. gapa, Engl. gape; Germ. offen = Icel. opinn, Engl. open; Germ. affe = Icel. api, Engl. ape; Germ. triefen = Icel. drjúpa, Engl. drip; Germ. tropfen = Icel. dropi, Engl. drop. As to the use of the initial f, the Engl., Icel., Swed., and Dan. all agree; the High Germ. spelling is confused, using either f or v, but both of them are sounded alike, thus voll = Engl. full, Icel. fullr; vier = Engl. four, Icel. fjórir; vater = Engl. father, Icel. faðir, etc.: but fisch = Engl. fish, Icel. fiskr; fest = Engl. fast, Icel. fastr. This German v, however, seems to be dying out (Grimm, introduction to F). 2. for the change of fn and mn, see introduction to B: f changes to m in a few Icel. words, as himin, qs. hiffin, cp. Engl. heaven; helmingr, a half, from halfr, half.
D. INTERCHANGE. -- The Greek and Latin p answers to Teutonic and Icel. f; thus, pater, paucus, piscis, GREEK, GREEK, GREEK, pecu, pellis, GREEK, pinguis, plecto, pes, GREEK, pallor, etc., cp. Icel. faðir, fár, fiskr, fimm, furr, foli, fé, fell (feldr), feitr, flétta, fet and fótr, fólr, etc.; Lat. portare = færa, Engl. to ford; se-pelio = fela; GREEK = fjóðr and fiðr; GREEK and GREEK, cp. fnasa; Lat. per, pro, GREEK cp. fyrir; Lat. pl&e-long;nus, pleo, GREEK, GREEK, cp. fullr; GREEK = fley; Lat. prior, GREEK, cp. fyrir, fyrstr: Lat. primus, cp. frum-; Lat. pl&u-long;res, pl&e-long;rique, GREEK, GREEK, GREEK = fjöl-, fjöd, fleiri, flestr; Lat. plicare = falda; Lat. pr&e-long;tium, cp. friðr, fríðendi, etc. (vide Grimm). Again, where no interchange has taken place the word is usually borrowed from the Greek or Latin, e. g. forkr, Engl. fork = Lat. furca; Icel. fals, falskr = Lat. falsus; Icel. fálki = Lat. falco, etc.
faðerni, n. fatherhood, paternity, Fms. vii. 164; at f. eðr móðerni, on father's or mother's side, Eg. 267, Fms. ix. 251; verða sekr um f., to be convicted of fatherhood, Grág. i. 86; ganga við f., to acknowledge one's fatherhood, Fms. i. 257, ii. 19, iii. 130; faðerni opp. to móðerni, vi. 223. β. patrimony, Skv. 3. 67. γ. a parent, the father; ekki
var breytt um f. Kolla, Bjarn. 45 MS. (Ed. wrongly föðurinn); hann var ljóss ok fagr eptir f. sínu, as his father, Edda 7. δ. eccl. = Lat. paternitas, Bs. ii. 14, 80, 151, Th. 12, Mar., etc.
FAÐIR, m., gen. dat. and acc. föður: pl. nom. and acc. feðr, gen. feðra, dat. feðrum; there also occurs a monosyllabic nom. föðr or feðr, gen. föðrs or feðrs, dat. and acc. föðr or feðr, the pl. as in faðir; this form occurs passim in MSS. and editions, but is less correct and quite obsolete, Eg. 178, Fms. i. 6, N. G. L. i. 52, Stj. 130: in mod. usage in gen. both föður and föðurs, better föðrs: feðr nd veðr are rhymed, Edda 95; cp. also the compds all-föðr (of Odin), but Al-faðir of God in mod. usage: [Goth, fadar; A. S. fader; Early Engl. fader, mod. father; O. H. G. fatar, mod. vater; Swed.-Dan. fader; Lat. p&a-long;ter; Gr. GREEK all of them bisyllabic] :-- a father, N. G. L. i. 30, Grág. i. 170, Stj. 71, Hom. 47, passim :-- in eccl. sense, Lat. pater, a father of the church, Stj. 126; speki feðra, Eluc. 2, K. Á. 30; faðir ok forstjóri, father and ruler, Mar. :-- God, heavenly Father, N. T.; Foðir Vor, Our Father (i. e. the Lord's Prayer, Lat. Pater Noster). Proverb or saying, fleygir fúsum til föður húsa, swift is the ride towards a father's house. COMPDS: föður-afi, u, m. a grandfather on the father's side. föður-arfr, m. inheritance after a father, Eg. 470, Rd. 282, Fb. ii. 172. föður-bani, a, m. slayer of another man's father, Nj. 120, Landn. 286, Fms. vi. 367, vii. 220, Fb. i. 555. Föður-betringr, m. better than one's father, Grett. 110. föður-bróðir, m. a father's brother, uncle, Grág;. i. 171, ii. 185, Nj. 4: föðurbróður-sonr, a father's brother's son, Fms. x. 390. föður-bætr, f. pl. weregild for a father, Fms. ii. 109, Hkr. iii. 387. föður-dauði, a, m. a father's death, Ísl. ii. 116, Fas. i. 34. föður-dráp, n. a father's slaughter, Ísl. l. c., v. l. föður-erfð, f. = föðurarfr, Landn. 214, v. l. föður-faðir, m. a father's father, Grág. i. 171, ii. 185, Jb. 14, Fms. i. 67, vii. 16. föður-frændi, a, m. a kinsman on the father's side, Gþl. 261, Ld. 24. föður-garðr, m. a father's house, Fas. iii. 250, cp. K. Á. 58. föður-gjöld, n. pl. weregild for one's father, Edda 48, Ísl. ii. 216. föður-hefndir, f. pl. revenge for one's father if slain, Ld. 260, Rd. 305, Vd. 94, Al. 7; as to this heathen custom, vide Sdm. 35, Skv. 3. 12, Nj. ch. 120 (en þó er þér meiri nauðsyná at hefna föður þíns), Heiðarv. S. (the revenge of Gest), Fms. vi, Har. S. harðr. 103 (the taunts of Halli), Ld. ch. 60, cp. also Eb. ch. 38, etc. föður-hús, n. a father's house, Stj. 398, 463. föður-kyn, n. father's kin, Eg. 266. föður-land, n. [Germ. vaterland, Dan. fædreland], fatherland, Bær. 17, a rare word, sounding even now affected and mod.; Icel. prefer saying ætt-jörð, fóstr-jörð, or the like. föður-lauss, adj. fatherless, H. E. i. 237. föður-leifð (föður-leif, Bær. 5, Fms. x. 386), f. a patrimony, viz. land and estates, Fms. i. 52, v. 117, vii. 176, Ld. 104. föður-liga, adv. and föður-ligr, adj. fatherly, Stj. 63, Fms. vi. 70, Finnb. 226. föður-móðir, f. a father's mother, Nj. 25, Grág. i. 171. föður-systir, [whence Dan. faster], f. a father's sister, Grág. i. 171, Fms. iv. 24; füðursystur-dóttir, the daughter of a father's sister, a niece, Hkr. iii. 170. föður-verringr, m. a degenerate son, Mag. föður-ætt (or -átt), f. kinsfolk on the father's side, Grág. i. 171, Nj. 25, Gþl. 158. II. in many COMPDS used as adj., e. g. föður-ást, f. and föður-elska, u, f. fatherly love; föður-hendr, f, pl. fatherly