varld

Varld is a term used to refer to the world or the universe in several North Germanic languages. In modern usage, the Swedish word for world is spelled vard or värld, with the diacritic mark changing pronunciation and meaning. The non-diacritic form varld appears mainly in texts that omit accents or in historical spellings. In Icelandic, veröld is a closely related word meaning the world or life of the present world. In Norwegian and Danish, the common contemporary forms are verden and verden, respectively, with cognates in the same linguistic family.

Etymology and cognates. Varld and its closely related forms originate from Old Norse and other early North Germanic varieties. The words share a common semantic core referring to the inhabited world, the cosmos, or the totality of existence. Modern descendants appear with different diacritics across languages, but the underlying concept remains consistent: the collective space known as the world.

Usage. In everyday language, these words denote the physical world or the universe and are used in a wide range of phrases, such as "världens befolkning" (the world’s population) in Swedish, or "verden" in Danish and Norwegian. They also appear in discussions of global perspectives, literature, and philosophy, where the term often contrasts the world with particular localities or imagined realms.

Historical and cultural notes. The form varld reflects older orthography or cross-language renderings where diacritics were omitted. The concept of the world appears extensively in Nordic literature, mythology, and science, illustrating how closely connected language, culture, and ideas about the world have been across the Scandinavian sphere. See also: world (translation), verld (Old Norse), veröld (Icelandic).