Editing Lindworm (section)

== Etymology ==
'''Lindworm''' derives from [[early medieval]] [[Germanic languages]] ([[Old High German]]: ''lintwurm'', [[Old Low German]]: ''lindworm'', [[Middle Dutch]]: ''lindeworm'', [[Old Norse]]: ''linnormr'', [[Old Swedish]]: ''lindormber'') of uncertain origin, possibly from a [[Proto-Germanic]] form akin to “[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/linþawurmiz|linþawurmiz]]”. The name compounds Germanic ''lind'' with ''worm'', the latter meaning "snake, dragon" (see [[Germanic dragon]]). The meaning of the prefix ''lind'' is also uncertain, perhaps it is from the Proto-Germanic adjective ''*linþia-,'' meaning "flexible", or perhaps it is from the Old Danish/[[Old Saxon]] ''lithi'', Old High German ''lindi'', "soft, mild" (Middle High and Low German ''linde'', German ''lind'', ''(ge)linde''), Old English ''liðe'' (English ''lithe'', "agile"), alternatively something akin to [[Old Swedish]] ''linde'' (modern Swedish ''linda''), existing as prefix ''lind-'' and ''linn-'', meaning "to wind", "to turn coils around something".

The term occurs in [[Middle High German]] as ''lintwurm'' and Old Swedish as ''lindormber'' (modern Swedish ''lindorm'', modern Danish ''lindorm''), meaning "lind-snake".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hellquist |first1=Elof |title=Svensk Etymologisk Ordbok |date=1922 |publisher=C. W. K. Gleerups Förlag |location=Lund |page=411 |url=https://runeberg.org/svetym/#l |access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref> In [[Old Icelandic]], the term ''linnormr'' was used to translate German sources to produce [[Þiðreks saga]] (an Old Norse chivalric saga adapted from the continent from the late 13th c.)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cleasby |first1=Richard |last2=Vigfusson |first2=Guđbrandr |title=An Icelandic-English Dictionary |date=1957 |publisher=Clarendon |location=Oxford |url=http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html |page=90}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Þiðreks saga af Bern |url=https://heimskringla.no/wiki/%C3%9Ei%C3%B0reks_saga_af_Bern_-_Upphaf_Sigur%C3%B0ar_sveins |access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref>