#12: Skemmtilegur

I'm always amused by autological words, or words that possess the very quality implied in their definitions. For instance, the word "short" is short, "polysyllabic" has several syllables, and "word" is a word. There are actually quite a few of these in English, and trying to list as many as you can is a fun activity. Of course, Icelandic has several self-referential words of its own, and today's choice is one of them: skemmtilegur.

It's an adjective and it means "fun." It's also quite fun to say, at least in my opinion, which makes it a fun word that means fun (therein is the autology). It can be used to describe both people and activities, and can also be translated as "funny," "entertaining," or "interesting," depending on the context. Like most adjectives, its form depends on the grammatical gender of the noun it modifies: so a fun man is skemmtilegur, but a fun lady is skemmtileg, and a fun tree would be skemmtilegt.

Hilarious!

Just be careful that you don't mistakenly use it as a noun; that word is gaman, although skemmtun is also a viable alternative. Íslenska er svo skemmtileg!

WORD SUMMARY:

skemmtilegur, --, -t (adj): fun, funny, interesting

Posted in: Adjectives