#6: Ís

I realize that my previous entries to this blog may give the impression  that Icelandic is a language of monstrously large, unwieldy compound words. And that is true, to some extent-- there's no shortage of "how am I supposed to even say that?" moments whenever you open an Icelandic book. But, that doesn't mean that every word is a mouthful and a half. Take today's word, for example-- it's short and sweet: ís.

Ís is the Icelandic word for "ice," and it comes from the same Proto-Germanic root as its English counterpart. Curiously, though, if you stroll into the local matvörubúð (grocery store) and ask for some ís, you may not get what you were expecting. That's because, although the word literally means "ice," in modern usage it is usually assumed to be short for rjómaís, or ice cream. So, if you don't want a frosty swirl of soft-serve and were just looking for something to keep your drinks cold, you'll probably need to ask for a bag of klaki (another word that means "ice.")

Of course, the name of the country, Ísland, doesn't refer to its ice cream (although the glowing reviews for this creamery in Akureyri makes you wonder if maybe it should). Rather, the country was given its name long before modern ice cream existed. The story is that, when the Norse explorer Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson landed in northern Iceland during the 9th century, he climbed a mountain near Vatnsfjördur and observed drift ice floating in the fjord below. This observation led him to call the entire island "Ice land," even though [as any native Icelander will tell you] most of Iceland is actually not frozen.

This part is, though.

You may have heard recently that Iceland is considering changing its name from Ísland to something a little more accessible and less chilly. Well, it turns out that that just isn't true. And that's a good thing, because "Ice Cream Land" sounds like the type of place I'd visit every day if I could. If the Icelandic tourism agency is really concerned about attracting more tourist dollars, I'd recommend just emphasizing the "ice cream" angle a little more.

WORD SUMMARY:

ís, -s, -ar (m): ice, ice cream

Posted in: Food, Iceland, Nouns