þrettán

þrettán is the Icelandic cardinal number for thirteen. It is used in counting, prices, dates, and other contexts where numbers appear in everyday Icelandic. The word is written with the letter thorn (þ) and carries a long vowel marked by the acute accent on the a, reflecting Icelandic spelling conventions. In pronunciation, it is commonly rendered roughly as “THREH-tahn,” with the initial th as in thorn and a lengthened final syllable.

Etymology and cognates: þrettán is part of a broader North Germanic set of words for the number thirteen. It is cognate with Danish tretten, Norwegian tretten, Swedish tretton, and English thirteen. These forms all derive from a common Proto-Germanic source for the digit sequence and share the same stem that marks the transition from three to thirteen in the Germanic languages. Icelandic preserves the thorn-starting form that distinguishes it from its neighboring languages.

Usage: In modern Icelandic, þrettán serves as the standard cardinal form for thirteen. It appears in contexts such as counting, lists, dates, and numerical descriptions. Like other numbers in Icelandic, it is part of a regular numeral system that includes other related forms such as fjórtán (fourteen) and fimmtán (fifteen), illustrating the shared pattern among Icelandic teen-numbers.

See also: Icelandic numerals, North Germanic languages, Proto-Germanic numerals.