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Definition 2024

þegja_þunnu_hljóði

þegja þunnu hljóði

Icelandic

Verb

þegja þunnu hljóði

  1. to hold one’s tongue, to say nothing even though one is divided or not happy about something; to be silent even though one is unreconciled, but be still unreconciled; to keep a watchful silence; to listen in breathless stillness (confer the English open one’s big mouth and bend the truth)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Icelandic Web of Science: Hvað þýðir að þegja þunnu hljóði og hvaðan er þetta orðatiltæki komið? (“What does þegja þunnu hljóði mean and whence does it originate?”)
  2. 1 2 3 Hávamál
  3. ↑ HOVAMOL- The Ballad of the High One an English translation of Hávamál

Etymology

From þegja ‎(“to be quiet, to be silent, to say nothing”) + þunnu ‎(“with thin”) the tækisþágufall ‎(“dative of instrument”) of þunnur ‎(“thin”) + hljóði ‎(“archaic meaning; with hearing”) the tækisþágufall ‎(“dative of instrument”) of hljóð ‎(“archaic meaning; hearing”). Literally meaning "to be silent with a thin hearing" meaning "to be silent with an ear so thin that one can listen well".

The proverb is a reference to (quotation of) the seventh verse of the Hávamál, one of the books of the Poetic Edda.[1]

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