What is the opposite of a birthday? Not all cultures celebrate birthdays to the same extent that we do in America, but most languages at least have a word or phrase that means "the anniversary of one's birth." However, it is a curious phenomenon that many of those languages do not have a corresponding word to denote the anniversary of one's death. Icelandic, though, does have such a word-- ártíð.
Although birthdays are celebrated or at least recognized in nearly every European culture, anniversaries of death typically aren't. This could explain why most Indo-European languages (including our own) do not have a word for this occasion. Sure, in English one may occasionally hear the term "deathday," but that's not widely used; one almost never hears something along the lines of "Today we're going to the cemetary for grandma's twelfth deathday." In contrast, many Asian languages (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) do have dedicated words for "death anniversary," as they are spoken in cultures which typically place a heavier emphasis on ancestor worship and reverence. There is also a Yiddish word יאָרצײַט ("yahrzeit" or "yortsayt") which is used to describe death anniversaries in Judaism and which is sometimes used as a loanword in English. Still, among Indo-European languages, Icelandic is in a small minority with its word ártíð.
Even though it's a tiny word (by Icelandic standards, at least), ártíð is actually a compound, composed of the word ár (year) and tíð (period of time). Thus, it literally means "a year's time," but it is only used to denote the years that have passed since someone's death (so don't use it for wedding anniversaries!). To specify a particular "deathday" in Icelandic, one must use the following formula:
[# of years] + [genitive of ár] + ártíð + [genitive of the person]
Thus, to convey "Karl's seventh deathday," you'd say sjö ára ártíð Karls. In the most literal sense, it means "the seven years' death anniversary of Karl." Similarly, "the one year anniversary of Kristín's death," would be eins árs ártíð Kristínar. Those familiar with Icelandic may notice that this is the same formula used for birthdays (just replace ártíð with afmæli). When forming these constructions, do be mindful that the first four cardinal numbers are declinable and thus also need to be genitive and neuter (like eins above) to agree with árs (singular)/ára (plural).
I chose ártíð for today's entry because today is actually the fifth anniversary of my father's death (Icelandic: fimm ára ártíð pabba míns). We may not have a ceremony for this occasion or even a tidy way to say it in English, but it's nevertheless nice to acknowledge it.
WORD SUMMARY:
ártíð, -ar, -ir (f): "deathday" (anniversary of one's death)
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