þungr

þungr is a historical term attested in Old Norse and related North Germanic languages, generally glossed as “heavy” or “weighty.” In Old Norse usage, it described physical heaviness as well as figurative weight, such as gravity of a situation or the importance of a matter. The word occurs in various literary and documentary texts from the medieval Norse-speaking world, where adjectives were used to describe tangible properties as well as symbolic states.

Etymology and cognates: þungr is derived from Proto-Germanic roots connected with meaning related to weight or density. It belongs to a family of adjectives in the Germanic languages that express mass or gravity, and it has descendants or reflexes in later North Germanic varieties. In modern Icelandic, the basic inherited sense survives in the adjective þungur meaning “heavy,” with the form þungr appearing primarily in historical or dialectal contexts.

Grammar and usage: In Old Norse, the word behaved as an adjective that could modify nouns and participate in predication. Its exact inflection varied with gender, number, and case, as is typical for strong adjectives of the era. In many contexts, it conveys straightforward physical heaviness, but it can also convey seriousness or gravity in a figurative sense.

Modern status: þungr is chiefly of interest to scholars of medieval Norse language and literature as an example of how Old Norse described weight and importance. Its primary modern reflex is the Icelandic in-use form þungur; the historical form þungr appears mainly in linguistic, philological, or dialectal discussions.

See also: Old Norse language, Icelandic language, Germanic etymology, adjective inflection.