Sjúk

Sjúk is an Icelandic word meaning sick or ill. In contemporary Icelandic, the standard adjective describing illness is sjúkur, which declines like other Icelandic adjectives. The form sjúk is encountered mainly as a historical or dialectal variant and may appear in older texts or regional speech. The term is part of a broader family of Nordic words for illness, and it is related to Danish syg, Swedish sjuk, and Norwegian syk, reflecting a shared linguistic heritage from Old Norse and the broader Germanic language area.

Etymology and cognates

Sjúkur is commonly traced to Old Norse sjúkr and related forms in other Nordic languages, with a common root in the Proto-Germanic word for disease or illness. This family of words appears across the Nordic languages with similar meanings but diverse spellings.

Usage

As an adjective, sjúkur (and its declined forms) describes a person or condition that is unwell. It participates in standard Icelandic adjective agreement, changing form to match gender and number. In everyday speech you might hear hann er sjúkur (he is ill) or konan er sjúk (the woman is sick) in some dialectal variants. The term also appears in medical and educational contexts alongside related words such as sjúkdómur (disease) and sjúkleiki (illness).

Notes

Sjúk can be viewed as a less common or archaic variant of the modern standard sjúkur. The basic meaning remains clearly “sick” or “ill,” and the word forms part of a broader semantic field concerning health, illness, and medical terminology in Icelandic.