Word Of The Issue: Flying Ice

The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time

It is the height of the Icelandic winter, which means that if you are planning to drive anywhere, you will do well to look up the road conditions on umferdin.is. And if you’re planning on a long road trip outside of the Capital Area in winter, also check if you have decent tires on your vehicle, warm clothes in case of emergency, and even a rope and a shovel. All things that might come in handy.

But back to checking the road conditions. On umferdin.is you’ll see the various categories of road conditions given out by the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration or IRCA. These are colour coded, and the colour codes have definitions. Some are straightforward; roads marked green are greiðfært, meaning easily passable and roads marked red are ófært, meaning impassable. Weather conditions that will get Icelandic roads closed are numerous. Just wind can do that on this island. Cut to blown-up caravans on the side of Icelandic roads, every year. Snow volume or blizzard conditions can obviously do the same. However, for the word of the issue, let us get to the fun part.

In freezing conditions, it is common to see roads marked either light blue for hálkublettir (i.e., patches of ice) or dark blue for hált (i.e., slippery). Neither of which is very interesting. However, roads colour coded in purple are marked as flughált in Icelandic. That word translates directly to flying slippery or flying ice. And don’t tell us that isn’t a strange word. What on God’s earth is flying ice? Well, of course, it isn’t the ice in question that is flying, but it is slippery enough to send you, or whatever vehicle you’re driving, flying off the road. The word is not some modern tongue-in-cheek invention, instead its use dates back to the 18th century, seemingly having always meant that something is so slippery that it sends you flying.

So, be diligent, check the road conditions before your Icelandic roadtrip, and avoid at all costs being sent flying off the road.

Learn more Icelandic words hér.