German

Proper noun

Björn

1. A male given name borrowed from Swedish in the 1930s.

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [pjœrtn]
• Rhymes: -œrtn

Proper noun

Björn

1. A male given name meaning ‘bear’ (see björn)

Declension

Related terms

• Bjarni

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse Bjǫrn, from bjǫrn ‎(“bear”), with identical meaning in modern Swedish. Runic name revived since 1816. Cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bjørn.

Proper noun

Björn

1. A male given name.
2. (rare) A surname​.

Related terms

• (male given names) Bjarne, Esbjörn, Torbjörn
• (surnames) Björnsson

References

• Roland Otterbjörk: Svenska förnamn, Almqvist & Wiksell 1996, ISBN 91-21-10937-0
• Statistiska centralbyrån and Sture Allén, Staffan Wåhlin, Förnamnsboken, Norstedts 1995, ISBN 9119551622: 61 321 males with the given name Björn (and 1708 persons with the surname Björn) living in Sweden on December 31st, 2010, with the frequency peak in the 1970s. Accessed on 19 June 2011.

Icelandic

Noun

björn m ‎(genitive singular bjarnar, nominative plural birnir)

1. bear (mammal)

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Swedish

en björn

Etymology

From Old Swedish biorn, biørn, from Old Norse bjǫrn, from Proto-Germanic *bernuz, northern form of Proto-Germanic *berô, probably from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ‎(“brown”).^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bjøːrn/

Noun

björn c

1. a bear (an ursid)

   Vi såg en björn i skogen i går.

   We saw a bear in the forest yesterday.

2. (slang) a large hairy man, particularly one who is gay; a bear

Declension

Related terms

See also

• väck inte den björn som sover
• sälja skinnet innan björnen är skjuten

References

1. ↑ björn in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

• björn in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)
• björn in Svenska Akademiens ordbok online.