Bókstaflega

Bókstaflega is an Icelandic adverb meaning primarily “alphabetically” or “in the order of the letters of the alphabet.” It is used to describe the arrangement of items such as lists, indexes, dictionaries, and bibliographies when they are ordered from A to Z (or according to the Icelandic alphabet). The term can also appear in contexts of spelling, indicating a word rendered letter by letter.

Etymology: The word is formed from bókstafur, meaning “letter” or “character,” combined with the adverbial suffix -lega. The sense is essentially “by letters,” which has come to denote alphabetical ordering in practice.

Usage: Bókstaflega is commonly used in library science, linguistics, and information organization. For example, a list can be said to be raðað bókstaflega eftir nafni, i.e., arranged in alphabetical order by name. In everyday language, it may be used to emphasize that something is written or presented exactly as it would appear in standard spelling, though this usage is less common than its sorting sense.

Relation to other terms: The standard concept of alphabetical order is often described with the term stafrófsröð (alphabetical order). Bókstaflega serves as a broader descriptor for anything arranged by letters and, in some contexts, for spelling things out letter by letter.

See also: stafrófsröð, bókstafur, stafur.