heiðr

From Proto-Germanic *haiduz. Originally a u-stem, but reanalyzed into an a-stem.

heiðr m (genitive heiðrs)

1. honour, worth

• heiðra (“to honour”)
• heiðran (“worship, honouring”)
• heiðumhár (“high with honours”)

• Icelandic: heiður
• Faroese: heiður
• Norwegian Nynorsk: heider
• Danish: hæder
  • Norwegian Bokmål: heder
• Swedish: heder

From Proto-Germanic *haiþī.

heiðr f (genitive heiðar, plural heiðar)

1. heath, moor

• Icelandic: heiði
• Faroese: heiði
• Norwegian Nynorsk: hei, heid
• Norwegian Bokmål: hei
• Old Swedish: hēþ
  • Swedish: hed
• Danish: hede
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hede
    • → Norwegian Nynorsk: hede

Inherited from Proto-Norse ᚺᚼᛁᛞᛉ, ᚺᛁᛞᛖᛉ (hideʀ), from Proto-Germanic *haidraz, *haidaz, from Proto-Indo-European *keyt- (“to shine, glow”).

Cognate with Old High German heitar (German heiter) and Sanskrit चित्र (citra, “bright, wonderful, multicolored”).

heiðr (comparative heiðari, superlative heiðastr)

2. bright, clear, cloudless
   • c. 900, anonymous author, Vǫluspá:

     Sól tér sortna, · sígr fold í mar,
     hverfa af himni · heiðar stjǫrnur;

     Sun begins to darken, Earth sinks into the sea,
     the bright stars fall down from the sky.

• heið n (“brightness of the sky (beyond the clouds)”)
• heiða (“to brighten, dispel the clouds”)

• Icelandic: heiður
• Faroese: heiður
• Norwegian Nynorsk: hei
  • → English: hey