hvötum

Hvítum is a form of the Icelandic adjective hvítur, which means "white." In Icelandic, adjectives agree with the nouns they modify for gender, number, and case, and hvítum represents one of the inflected endings that can occur in this system.

In practical usage, hvítum appears as an inflected variant used with plural nouns in certain grammatical cases, most commonly in the dative plural. The exact form a speaker uses depends on the noun’s gender, definiteness, and the declension pattern governing the phrase. Because Icelandic adjectives have both strong and weak inflection and must match the noun phrase as a whole, hvítum is one of several possible endings that convey the same color attribute in different contexts.

Etymology traces hvítur to the Old Norse word for white, with hvítum sharing the same root as related color terms in the broader North Germanic language family. The form reflects the language’s rich system of noun–adjective agreement, rather than functioning as an independent word with a meaning beyond “white” when used in phrases.

hvítum is therefore best understood as a grammatical variant rather than as a standalone lexical item. It appears in descriptive passages and everyday speech wherever a speaker describes plural objects as white, within the rules of Icelandic adjective agreement.

See also: Icelandic grammar, Icelandic adjectives, color terms in Icelandic.