Heimilis

Heimilis is an Icelandic noun referring to a person’s place of residence or the household as a unit. In everyday use it can mean home or domicile, while in official contexts it more precisely denotes the household or domicile that is used for administrative purposes, such as tax, welfare, or civil-status records. The form heimilis is the genitive singular of heimili and appears in possessive constructions and compound terms, for example heimilisfang, which means “home address.”

Etymology and form are straightforward within Icelandic. Heimilis derives from heimili, which in turn comes from Old Norse, reflecting the common Germanic roots for “home.” The word functions both as a concrete reference to where a person lives and as a legal or statistical unit used in registries and forms.

Usage and contexts. In statistics and public administration, heimilis is used to describe the basic unit for data about households and their members. It informs population distribution, service eligibility, and demographic analyses. In everyday language, people use heimili to refer to their own home or the place where they live, though terms like búseta and heimili can be used with slightly different nuances depending on the context.

Related terms include heimili (home), búseta (residence or settlement), and heimilisfang (home address). The concept of heimilis intersects with official registers and privacy considerations, since it concerns an individual’s ordinary place of living and the household with which they are associated.