horshwæl

Old English

Horshwæl on īse.

Etymology

Equivalent to hors (“horse”) +‎ hwæl (“whale”). Cognate with Old Norse hrosshvalr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxorsˌxwæl/, [ˈhorˠsˌʍæl]

Noun

horshwæl m

1. a walrus
   • Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan

     Hē fōr ðyder, tōēacan þæs landes sċēawunge, forðǣm horshwælum, forðǣm hī habbað swȳðe æþele bān on hyra tōþum: þā tēð hȳ brōhton sume þǣm cyninge; and hyra hȳd bið swīðe gōd tō sċiprāpum. Sē hwæl bið miċle lǣssa þonne ōðre hwalas: ne bið ne lengra ðonne syfan elna lang; ac, on his āgnum lande, is sē betsta hwælhuntað: þā bēoð eahta and fēowertiġes elna lange, and þā mǣstan, fīftiġes elna lange; þāra, hē sǣde, þæt hē syxa sum ofslōge syxtiġ on twām dagum.

     He went thither, in addition to the surveying of that land, because of the walruses, because they have very excellent bones on their tusks: they brought some of the teeth to the king; and their hides are very good for use as cables. This whale is much smaller than other whales; it is no longer than seven ells; but the best whaling is found in its own land: the whales are forty-eight ells long, and the largest are fifty ells; of those, he said that he as one of six killed sixty in two days.

Declension

Strong a-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	horshwæl	horshwalas
accusative	horshwæl	horshwalas
genitive	horshwæles	horshwala
dative	horshwæle	horshwalum

References

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “horshwæl”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[1], second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.