Andstæða

Andstæða is an Icelandic noun that means the opposite or antithesis. It designates the relationship between two terms where one is opposite to the other, a concept commonly described as an antonym in linguistic terminology. The singular form is andstæða and the plural is andstæður. The word is used in dictionaries, language teaching, philosophy, and rhetoric to identify contrastive pairs.

Etymology and sense: The term is constructed to express opposition, reflecting its function of marking a contrasting relation between concepts, words, or ideas. This makes it the standard label for the opposite of a given term in Icelandic.

Usage: In education and language work, learners identify andstæður by pairing words such as góður (good) and illur (bad). Other examples include ljóst (bright/clear) versus dökkt (dark/unclear) or myrkur (darkness) as an opposite of ljós (light) in contrastive analysis. In philosophical or argumentative contexts, andstæða can refer to opposing positions or ideas within a debate.

Related terms: The closest equivalent in English is antonym; in Icelandic, andstæða is often discussed alongside samheiti (synonym) to describe different kinds of lexical relationships. The concept also appears in contrastive analysis and language pedagogy to illustrate how words relate through opposition.

See also: antonym, synonym, contrast, opposition.