Etymology

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"Ítarlegur" is (was) quite probably a misspelling of "ýtarlegur" from when the archaic meaning had already been forgotten. The words are pronounced identically. The 'ý' is inherited from Danish "yderlig", as opposed to being a transformation of an older Icelandic word. It is thus unobvious to Icelanders that the word was to be written with 'ý'. Hence the accepted misspelling.

Return to "ítarlegur" page.