Word(s) Of The Issue: A Menagerie

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

Despite the fact that the word “menagerie” is often used to describe an accumulation of all sorts of things, it is first and foremost a word that describes a collection of (captive) animals. Wait, why am I writing so much about a word in English? That’s not why you’re here!

Let me explain: this Word of the Issue covers the Icelandic names for a bunch of animals.

This all started with my love for the word skjaldbaka. A compound of skjöldur (which gets grammatically changed to get “skjald,” but don’t worry about it) and bak. This literally means “shield back.” Notoriously with shields on their backs, this is the Icelandic word for turtle.

Adding to our menagerie, I’ve chosen two words created by famed poet Jónas Hallgrímsson. First, a catch-all word: spendýr. This is a compound of teat + animal, to mean mammal. Of course, mammal’s etymology also refers to the breast, but Jónas just went about the translation a little more frankly. Can’t argue with that. Then, also constructed by him is mörgæs. Mör means fat, and gæs is goose, which leads us to a fat goose. Otherwise known as a penguin!

Speaking of gæs, our next word is gæsalappir. This is a pre-existing compound word used by other languages, and it literally means goose feet. If you speak Estonian, German, or Hungarian, you already know that this means quotation marks! In Danish and Norwegian, it is slightly changed to mean goose eyes. English is so unimaginative sometimes.

So, now, held captive in the cage of our mind, we’ve added a turtle, all mammals, a penguin, and maybe two geese (or at least their feet.) Enjoy your new vocabulary, zookeeper!

Learn more Icelandic words hér.