Tids

Tids is a bound morpheme used in several Scandinavian languages to indicate relation to time. It derives from the noun tid, meaning time or duration, and appears as a prefix or stem in compound words rather than as a free-standing noun in modern usage.

In linguistic terms, tids functions as a time-related marker that binds to other roots to form new words. The exact orthography and word formation vary by language, but the general concept is common across Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. In practice, tids helps create vocabulary for temporal concepts, schedules, and timekeeping.

In Swedish, tids is seen in compounds such as tidskrift, a word meaning journal or magazine. In Danish, a closely cognate form is tidsskrift, which also denotes a periodical. Beyond these, tids forms many other time-related compounds in the Scandinavian languages, often conveying ideas like time frames, time zones, or time-based planning. In Norwegian, similar compounds exist and follow the same broad pattern, reflecting a shared Scandinavian heritage for time-related terminology.

Tids is not typically used as a standalone noun in contemporary standard usage; instead, it operates as a productive prefix or bound element in word formation. Its presence helps speakers bundle temporal meaning into a wide range of concepts, from publications to schedules and temporal categorizations.

See also tid.