View source for Ergi

{{short description|Old Norse term of insult, denoting effeminacy or other unmanly behavior}}
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'''{{lang|non|Ergi}}''' (noun) and '''{{lang|non|argr}}''' (adjective) are two [[Old Norse]] terms of [[insult]], denoting [[effeminacy]] or other unmanly behaviour. ''{{lang|non|Argr}}'' (also ''{{wikt-lang|non|ragr}}'') is "unmanly" and ''ergi'' is "unmanliness"; the terms have cognates in other [[Germanic languages]] such as ''{{wikt-lang|ang|earh}}'', ''{{wikt-lang|ang|earg}}'', ''arag'', or ''arug''.

==''Ergi'' in the Viking Age==
To accuse another man of being ''{{lang|non|argr}}'' was called ''scolding'' (see ''{{lang|non|[[nīþ]]}}'') and thus a legal reason to challenge the accuser in ''[[holmgang]]''.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} If ''holmgang'' was refused by the accused, he could be outlawed (full [[outlaw]]ry) as this refusal proved that the accuser was right and the accused was ''{{lang|non|argr}}''.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} If the accused fought successfully in ''holmgang'' and had thus proven that he was not ''{{lang|non|argr}}'', the ''scolding'' was considered what was in [[Old English]] called ''{{lang|ang|eacan}}'', an unjustified, severe defamation, and the accuser had to pay the offended party full compensation. The [[Gray Goose Laws]] states:
{{quote|There are three words—should exchanges between people ever reach such dire limits—which all have full outlawry as the penalty; if a man calls another ''{{lang|non|ragr}}'', ''{{lang|non|stroðinn}}'' or ''{{lang|non|sorðinn}}''. As they are to be prosecuted like other ''{{lang|non|fullréttisorð}}'' and, what is more, a man has the right to kill in retaliation for these three words. He has the right to kill in retaliation on their account over the same period as he has the right to kill on account of women, in both cases up the next General Assembly. The man who utters these words falls with forfeit immunity at the hands of anyone who accompanies the man about whom they were uttered to the place of their encounter.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sørenson |first1=Preben M. |last2=Turville-Petre |first2=Joan (transl.) |author2-link=Joan Turville-Petre |title=The Unmanly Man: Concepts of Sexual Defamation in Early Northern Society |publisher =Odense University Press |series=Studies in Northern Civilization |volume=1 |year=1983 |page=17 |isbn=87-7492-436-2}}</ref>}}
[[File:Vg 67, Saleby.JPG|thumb|200px|right|The [[Saleby Runestone]] uses the term ''{{lang|non|argri konu}}'' in a curse.]]

===Saleby Runestone===
Although no runic inscription uses the term ''{{lang|non|ergi}}'', [[runestone]] [[Saleby Runestone|Vg 67]] in Saleby, Sweden, includes a curse that anyone breaking the stone would become a ''{{lang|non|rata}}'', translated as a  'wretch', 'outcast', or 'warlock', and ''{{lang|non|argri konu}}'', which is translated as 'maleficent woman' in the [[dative]].<ref name="Rundata">[http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk] - [[Rundata]] entry for Vg 67.</ref> Here ''{{lang|non|argri}}'' appears to be related to the practice of ''{{lang|non|seiðr}}''<ref name="MacLeod">{{Cite book |last1=MacLeod |first1=Mindy |last2=Mees |first2=Bernard |title=Runic Amulets and Magic Objects |publisher=Boydell Press |year=2006 |pages=225–226 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC |isbn=1-84383-205-4}}</ref> and represents the most loathsome term the [[runemaster]] could imagine calling someone.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moltke |first=Erik |author-link=Erik Moltke |title=Runes and their Origin, Denmark and Elsewhere |publisher=Nationalmuseets Forlag |year=1985 |location=Copenhagen |page=140 |isbn=87-480-0578-9}}</ref>

==Modern usage==
{{refimprove|date=March 2012}}
In modern Scandinavian languages, the lexical root ''{{lang|gmq|arg-}}'' has assumed the meaning "angry", as in [[Swedish language|Swedish]],  [[Bokmål]] and [[Nynorsk]] ''{{wikt-lang|sv|arg}}'', or [[Danish language|Danish]] ''{{wikt-lang|da|arrig}}''. Modern [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] has the [[Morphological derivation|derivation]] ''{{lang|is|ergilegur}}'', meaning "to seem/appear irritable", similar to Bokmål ''ergre'', meaning "to irritate". (There are similarities to the [[German language|German]] ''{{wikt-lang|de|ärgerlich}}'', "annoying, annoyed", and [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ''{{wikt-lang|nl|ergerlijk}}'', "irritating" and ''{{wikt-lang|nl|ergeren}}'', "to irritate".) In modern [[Faroese language|Faroese]] the [[adjective]] ''{{lang|fo|argur}}'' means "angry/annoyed" and the [[verb]] ''{{lang|fo|arga}}'' means to "taunt" or "bully". In modern Dutch, the word ''{{wikt-lang|nl|erg}}'' has become a fortifier equivalent to English ''very''; the same is true for the old-fashioned adjective ''{{wikt-lang|de|arg}}'' in German, which means "wicked" (especially in compounds as ''{{wikt-lang|de|arglistig}}'' "malicious" and ''{{wikt-lang|de|arglos}}'' "unsuspecting"), but has become a fortifier in the [[Austrian German]]. The meaning of the word in Old Norse has been preserved in loans into neighboring [[Finnic languages]]: [[Livonian language|Livonian]] ārga, [[Estonian language|Estonian]] ''{{wikt-lang|et|arg}}'' and [[Finnish language|Finnish]] ''{{wikt-lang|fi|arka}}'', both meaning "cowardly".

==See also==
{{Portal|Religion|LGBTQ}}
* {{lang|grc-Latn|[[Malakia]]}} ({{lang|grc|μαλακία}}, Ancient Greek)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{in lang|sv}} [http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/show.phtml?filenr=1/16/3978.html SAOB: Arg.adj]
* {{in lang|sv}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070623024456/http://aarhus2001.hum.au.dk/rundborde/rundbord5paper2.html Från niding till sprätt. En studie i det svenska omanlighetsbegreppets historia från vikingatid till sent 1700-tal]
* {{in lang|sv}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20081001190615/http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/ark/education/CD/Cuppsats/CHT04/adolfsson.pdf Adolfsson, Lars: Germanska mannaförbund. Existens och initiation. Bachelor's thesis, Uppsala 2004]
* [http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/gayvik.shtml Viking Answer Lady]

{{wikitionary|ergi|argr}}
{{LGBT in Nordic countries}}
{{Religion and LGBT people}}

[[Category:Male gender nonconformity]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for effeminacy]]
[[Category:Gender-related stereotypes]]
[[Category:Old Norse]]