Xiii.—some Old‐english Words Omitted Or, Imperfectly Explained in Dictionaries

Words derived from Old Norse inSir Gawain and the Green Knight: An etymological survey

“…related OE * strōðer (see (2b) below). But it is in practice very hard to rule out some role for the formally and semantically very similar ON storð (as at (1) above): while arguing for strōd , Stevenson (: 541) admits that the ON item ‘adds further complexity to the group of words we are dealing with’; OED simply offers both possibilities; and most subsequent commentators have preferred input from both. See notably: Tolkien (: 56 n.2), who thinks that the native word ‘probably disturbed the development of the imported Norse storð , similar in meaning, but only remotely related etymologically, if at all’; TGD, which cites EPNE s.vv.…”

“…storð and strōd at 1710n, even while retaining TG’s reference only to ON storð in the glossary; Elliott (: 82, 129–30), who calls the two etyma ‘largely fused, or perhaps better confused’ (129). (2b) Another very pertinent form is ME strother (PDE strother ), which seems to lie behind several Northern place‐names; it is usually derived from an OE * strōðer defined by EPNE as ‘a place overgrown with brushwood’, and explained as related to OE strōd by OED and MED (and see earlier Stevenson : 540) . Onions (: 286) argues that it is ME strother which lies behind Gaw strothe , which he suggests is a scribal error (perh.…”