hægja

Hægja is an Icelandic verb meaning to slow down, decelerate, or come to a stop. It can also be used in a figurative sense to mean to restrain, hold back, or refrain from acting.

The word is native to Icelandic and Old Norse, where it appears as hagja or hægja. It is cognate with similar Germanic-language terms that express slowing or stopping. The exact Proto-Germanic form is not firmly established, but the core sense of reducing speed or restraint is shared across related languages.

Usage of hægja covers both physical and abstract slowing. It can describe slowing a movement, process, or mechanism, as well as tempering or delaying plans or actions in a figurative sense. In modern Icelandic, it may occur in transitive constructions meaning to slow something, and in intransitive uses meaning to slow down oneself or to cease activity temporarily. The term appears in everyday speech, technical writing about motion or timing, and literary contexts where revision or moderation is described.

See also: Icelandic language; Old Norse; Germanic language family; verbs of motion and control.