Icelandic Genealogical Word List

Introduction
This list contains Icelandic words with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word you are looking for (or some form of it) is not on this list, please consult an Icelandic-English dictionary. See the Additional Resources section below.

Icelandic is a Germanic language like Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. It is the purest form of the Old Norse language that exists today. It was brought to the country by the Norsemen, who settled Iceland. Icelandic has been a written language for more than 900 years and has remained relatively unchanged.

Iceland was under Danish rule until 1918. Records written before the mid 1800s may include Danish and some Latin words. Note that in the 1801 census, Danish and to some extent Latin, rather than Icelandic, are used throughout the text. See Danish Genealogical Word List and Latin Genealogical Word List.

Variant Forms of Words
In Icelandic, as in English, the forms of some words vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who—whose—whom and marry—marries—married are examples of words in English with variant forms. The endings of a word in a document may differ from those in this list. For example:

Alphabetical Order
Written Icelandic uses the following letters not found in the English alphabet: á, ð, é, í, ó, ú, ý, þ, æ, ö. The letters þ, æ, and ö are alphabetized after z. This word list, like most Icelandic dictionaries and indexes, uses the following alphabetical order:

a á b c d ð e é f g h i í j k l m n o ó p q r s t u ú v w x y

ý z þ æ ö

If you do not find a word in the alphabetical order listed above, search forward and backward in the dictionary, index, or word list until you locate the word.

Spelling
Spelling rules were not standardized in earlier centuries. Words were written as they sounded. Because Iceland was under Danish rule so long, and because many officials were Danish or had been educated in Denmark, Danish influence was prominent in vocabulary and style until the late eighteenth century.

In the 1703, 1801, and 1816 censuses and in the oldest church registers, the following graphemic or spelling variations are common:

Additional Resources
This word list includes only words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For more help, use an Icelandic-English dictionary. Additional dictionaries are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under Iceland - Language and languages - Dictionaries. The following is a selected list of titles. Cleasby-Vigfusson is the most comprehensive resource.

Bogason, Sigurður Örn. Ensk-Íslenzk Orðabók (English-Icelandic Dictionary). Reykjavik: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja H.F., 1976. FHL book Scand 439.6321 B633e; not available on film or fiche.

Cleasby, Richard; and Vigfusson, Gudbrand. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957. FHL book Scand 439.6321 C558li; not available on film or fiche. FamilySearch Digital Books An Icelandic-English dictionary. Online at Germanic Lexicon Project, An Icelandic-English Dictionary and Old Norse.net An Icelandic-English Dictionary. A YouTube video by Professor Jackson Crawford utlizes this dictionary as part of his university course, Old Norse Unit 2, Lesson 1: Using a Dictionary to Read Old Norse.

Hólmarsson, Sverrir; Sanders, Christopher; and Tucker, John. Íslensk-ensk orðabók. Reykjavík : Iðunn, 1989. FHL Book 439.6321 H731h; not available on film or fiche. Online at University of Wisconsin-Digitized Collections Íslensk-ensk orðabók.

Sörenson, Sören; and Hannesson, Jóhann S. Ensk-íslensk orðabók með alfræðilegu ívafi. Reykjavík: Örn og Örlygur, 1984. WorldCat.

Zoëga, Geir Tómasson. Íslenzk-Ensk orðabók = Icelandic-English dictionary. Reykjavík, Iceland : Bókaverzlun Sigurðar Kristjánsson, 1951. FHL book 439.6321 Z72e 1951, FHL film 1224705 Item 2. Online at Northvegr Foundation, Zoëga's A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic.

Key Words
In order to find specific types of information in Icelandic records, you will need to know some key words in Icelandic. This section lists key genealogical terms in English and the Icelandic words that convey the concept.

For example, in the first column you find the word marriage. In the second column you find Icelandic words with meanings such as married, married couple, bridal pair, and other words used in Icelandic records to indicate marriage.

Numbers
In Icelandic genealogical records, numbers are occasionally spelled out. This is especially true of dates. The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3) and the ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd) versions of each number. In actual usage, days of the month are written in ordinal form.

Dates and Time
Use the terms in this section and the “Numbers” section to interpret dates.

General Word List
This general word list includes words commonly seen in genealogical sources, including words for occupations, illnesses, and causes of death. Numbers, months, and days of the week are listed both here and in separate sections that follow this list. Words in parentheses in the English column clarify the definition.