Translation
Viking
Word origin
From Old Norse vikingr, the word the Norse used for a man on a raiding voyage rather than for a people. Its own origin is genuinely disputed.
- Origin
- Old Norse
- Root
- víkingr
- English cognates
- Viking
Other proposed origins
- The commonest account ties it to Old Norse vik, a bay or inlet, so a vikingr is a man of the creeks - either one who lives among them or one who waits in them for a passing ship. (Old Norse, vík)
- A competing account starts from Old English wic, a camp or trading settlement, itself from Latin vicus, and makes the vikingr the man of the camps. The English word is attested before the Norse one, which is the argument's strongest card. (Old English, from Latin, wīc)
Examples
.
The Vikings came from the north in long ships.
.
That museum shows the weapons of the Vikings.
.
He read a book about the Vikings and their ships.
A job, not a nation. This is the thing most Esperanto learners are surprised
by, because most languages hide it: never named a people. The Norse
called the voyage and the man who went on it vikingr, and a farmer
who stayed at home was a Dane or a Norwegian and not a at all. So
Esperanto is quietly accurate here.
Norvega names a nationality and a
svedo is a person of one; a is what a man
was doing that summer.
Which is why the adjective is awkward. and sveda are
straightforward adjectives from country and people roots, exactly as the
countries article sets out. Vikinga
works the same way grammatically - vikinga , a Viking ship - but it means
of the raiders, not of a country, and there is no *Vikingujo to be had.
The period is vikinga .
The words that travel with it. A is a
maristo first: the whole phenomenon is a shipbuilding
achievement before it is a military one. From there the vocabulary is
ŝipo, glavo,
rabi and nordo. The horned
helmet is a nineteenth-century opera costume and appears in no grave, so if you
want to be right as well as fluent, leave the horns off your .
Where this fits
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vikingo: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "vikingo" (Viking): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 59.