Il colore ‘blu’ nel medioevo frisone: afris. wēden, wēdan, wēdin

Abstract

The colour words have always been a fascinating topic of study for scholars of various disciplines, including linguists, philologists, psychologists, philosophers and anthropologists. A survey of the occurrences of the Old Frisian word wēden, wēdan, wēdin (cf. OE wǣden, OHG weit, presumably stemming from a Gmc *waizda-, waidīna-, a root meaning ‘woad, plant yielding blue dye’), might allow us to specify the various semantic fields covered by this lexeme, as well as the relevant contexts of use.