ársfjórðung

ársfjórðung is a term from Icelandic that denotes one of the four equal parts into a calendar year. It is formed from ár, meaning year, and fjórðungur, meaning quarter, and it corresponds to what in English is called a calendar quarter.

In practical use, an arsfjórðung covers three consecutive months. The first arsfjórðung typically runs from January through March, the second from April through June, the third from July through September, and the fourth from October through December. This division is standard in financial reporting, statistics, and many climate and seasonal records, where quarterly data provide a concise view of annual trends.

Historical and formal usage: the term appears in older Icelandic texts and in formal writings referring to quarterly periods within a year. In modern everyday Icelandic, speakers more often specify the quarter directly (for example, “the first quarter of the year”) or use common variants such as fyrsti fjórðungur ársins to avoid ambiguity.

See also: calendar quarter, fiscal year, quarterly report.

Overall, arsfjórðung is a straightforward linguistic construction for a year’s quarter, used mainly in accounting, statistics, and historical contexts to segment the year into four equal periods.