Norwegian

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Medieval Latin Norvegia (from Old Norse Norvegr (“Norway”)) +‎ -an, with v replaced by w due to influence from earlier English Norwayan (“Norwegian”).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /nɔːˈwiː.d͡ʒən/
  • (US) IPA(key): /nɔɹˈwi.d͡ʒən/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːd͡ʒən

Noun

Norwegian (countable and uncountable, plural Norwegians)

  1. A native of Norway.
    • 2018 January 12, Kara Fox, “Norwegians aren’t likely to move to the US, even if they’re welcome”, in CNN‎[1]:
      But despite the President’s offer, it’s unlikely that an influx of Norwegians will begin to settle in the US anytime soon.
    • 2023 May 12, George Ramsay, “After a record-breaking season, Erling Haaland is on track to become ‘the best striker ever’”, in CNN‎[2]:
      At the age of 22, the Norwegian forward had already established himself as one of the best goalscorers in European football – first at Red Bull Salzburg, then with two prolific seasons at Borussia Dortmund.
  2. A kind of fishing boat on the Great Lakes of North America.
  4. (uncountable) The language of Norway, which has two official forms (written standards): Bokmål and Nynorsk.
    • 2013 November 7, Rachael Tatman, “The Science of Speaking in Tongues”, in Making Noise & Hearing Things‎[3]:
      People don’t tend to use sounds that aren’t in their native language. (citation) So if you’re an English speaker, you’re not going to bust out some Norwegian vowels. This rather lets the air out of the theory that individuals engaged in glossolalia are actually speaking another language.
    • 2019 April 24, Jay Caspian Kang, “How Pete Buttigieg's Meaningless Erudition Made Him the 'Smart' Candidate”, in The New York Times Magazine‎[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 June 2023:
      [Kirsten] Gillibrand’s Mandarin can be written off as the résumé-building accomplishment of a striver, while Norwegian, which has no practical value for an American president, is taken as a sign of intellectual curiosity and authenticity — the sort of whimsical surplus achievement that often upstages workaday accomplishments.

(language):

Translations

Adjective

Norwegian (comparative more Norwegian, superlative most Norwegian)

  1. Of or pertaining to Norway (the country).
    • 1953 June, C. E. N. Watts, “Railway Through Lapland”, in Railway Magazine, page 384:
      Between Kiruna and the Norwegian border, along the chain of lovely lakes, a number of holiday resorts offering every comfort for the visitor have been developed.
    • 2009 January 18, Charles Isherwood, “Hedda Forever: An Antiheroine for the Ages”, in The New York Times‎[5], archived from the original on 9 June 2012:
      Since she sprang from the imagination of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1890, this coldhearted antiheroine has maintained a tight grip on the attention of audiences across the globe, outstripping all the many other complicated women in Ibsen’s oeuvre, even the door-slamming Nora of “A Doll’s House”.
  2. Of or pertaining to the Norwegian people.
    • 1953 June, C. E. N. Watts, “Railway Through Lapland”, in Railway Magazine, page 384:
      The line ends at Narvik. Eight years ago the whole town was in ruins, but the industry of the Norwegian people has rebuilt it entirely.
  3. Of or pertaining to the Norwegian language.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

  • Wiktionary’s coverage of Norwegian terms

Further reading

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