veröldin

Veröldin is the definite form of the Icelandic noun veröld, meaning “the world” or “the cosmos.” It can refer to the Earth as a planet, the totality of existence, or the human world of society and culture. The sense can be material, such as the physical world, or abstract, such as the world of ideas or imagination. It is used in everyday language as well as in literary or formal contexts. The definite article is expressed by the suffix -in, so veröldin translates to “the world.”

Veröld is derived from Old Norse verǫld, from Proto-Germanic *weraldiz, related to other Germanic words for world (Norwegian verden, Danish verden) and cognate with the English word world through a common Germanic heritage. In Icelandic, veröld is often distinguished from jörð, meaning “earth” or “soil,” to separate the globe as a planet from the ground itself. The form veröldin thus places the world as a defined, known object within discourse.

In usage, veröldin can denote the world at large, the natural world, or human civilization, and it can be employed metaphorically to talk about life, society, or reality. It appears in poetry and prose to evoke breadth, scale, or universality and is commonly used in expressions about global or universal concerns.

See also: heimur (world), veröld (world, cosmos), jörð (earth).