Blaðið

Blað is an Icelandic neuter noun with several related senses. It most commonly means a leaf or sheet of material, such as a page in a book or a sheet of paper. It also denotes a newspaper or other periodical when used in the sense of print media. In inflected form, the definite singular is blaðið, the indefinite singular is blað, the indefinite plural is blöð, and the definite plural is blöðin.

The word derives from Old Norse blad and Proto-Germanic *blādą, with cognates in other North Germanic languages such as Danish blad, Swedish blad, and Norwegian blad. The basic sense of “leaf” gave rise to “sheet” or “page” and, by metonymy, to “newspaper.”

Usage-wise, blað covers both physical leaves (of plants) and sheets of paper, as well as newspapers. Examples: Ég las blaðið í morgun (I read the paper this morning). Blaðið er á borðinu (The paper is on the table). In compound and media contexts, the word appears in titles and references to printed media, such as Morgunblaðið, the Morning Paper.

Notes: As a neuter noun, blað takes neuter agreement in adjectives and numerals in the singular, and its plural forms blöð and blöðin are used for indefinite and definite references respectively. The sense family shows a clear diachronic link between the physical leaf and the object we call a newspaper.