Fræði

Fræði is an Icelandic noun meaning science, scholarship, or the study of a subject. It can refer to both a body of knowledge and a named field of learning. In contemporary usage, fræði is often seen as a component of compound terms that name disciplines.

Etymology and scope: The word derives from Old Norse fræði, meaning knowledge or learning, and it is used across Icelandic to form names of scholarly fields. It conveys a sense of systematic study and intellectual inquiry, rather than the broader, oftener pragmatic sense of knowledge.

Usage and examples: Fræði functions as a productive suffix in many discipline names, such as guðfræði (theology), lögfræði (jurisprudence or law), hagfræði (economics), and tölfræði (statistics). It can also appear in contexts referring to scholarship in general, such as scholarly literature or academic research.

Relation to related terms: In Icelandic, vísindi is commonly used for the sciences in a natural or formal sense, while fræði emphasizes the scholarly study of a particular subject or field. The distinction can be subtle and varies with context, but fræði often centers on the discipline as a field of study and its methods and knowledge base.

See also: Icelandic terminology; lists of disciplines formed with the suffix fræði.