skäggig

Skäggig is a Swedish adjective meaning bearded. It is used to describe a person or animal that has a beard, and it can modify nouns in different grammatical forms or be used predicatively: "en skäggig man" (a bearded man) and "mannen är skäggig" (the man is bearded).

The word is formed from the noun skägg (beard) with the adjectival suffix -ig, which indicates the possession of a characteristic. Its etymology traces back to Old Norse skegg and related Germanic roots, reflecting the long-standing concept of facial hair as a recognizable trait in the language.

Inflection and usage notes: the base form is skäggig. In neuter singular it becomes skäggigt, and in plural it is skäggiga. In definite phrases, the forms take a weak inflection, for example den skäggiga mannen (the bearded man) and de skäggiga männen (the bearded men). Swedish adjectives agree with the noun in number and definiteness, so the endings vary accordingly.

Beardedness as a descriptive trait is common in everyday language, social descriptions, literature, and media. While beards have diverse cultural associations across time and regions, skäggig remains a straightforward, neutral descriptor in modern Swedish.

See also: skägg (beard), beard-related terms in Swedish.