hrosshvalr

Old Norse

Etymology

From hross (“horse”) +‎ hvalr (“whale”).

Noun

hrosshvalr m

1. walrus

Descendants

• Old Norse: rosmhvalr, rosmáll (possibly of another origin)
  • Icelandic: rosmhvalur
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: rossmål
    • → Norwegian Bokmål: rossmål
  • Danish: rosmer
• Old Norse: *hvalhross
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: kvalross (partially from Dutch)
  • Swedish: valross
  • Danish: hvalros
    • Norwegian Bokmål: hvalross
    • → English: walrus
    • → Dutch: (obsolete) walros, walrus
      • → Afrikaans: walrus
      • → German: Walross
• → Middle Irish: rosualt
  • → Irish: rosualt
  • → Scottish Gaelic: rosualt, reasual, ruashual, rochaid, rochaidh
• → Old French: roal, rohal
  • →⇒ Middle English: rewell bon, ruel bon
    • → English: ruel-bone

Further reading

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “hrosshvalr”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive