Icelandic edit

Etymology edit

From Old Norse leysa, from Proto-Germanic *lausijaną.

Cognate with Dutch lozen, English loose (from Old Norse lauss), obsolete English leese (from Old English līesan), German lösen; also Danish løse, Faroese loysa, Norwegian Bokmål løse/løyse, Norwegian nynorsk løyse/løysa and Swedish lösa.

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

leysa (weak verb, third-person singular past indicative leysti, supine leyst)

  1. (transitive, governs the accusative) to loosen
  2. (transitive, governs the accusative) to resolve, to solve, to unravel
    Ég er að reyna að leysa þetta vandamál.
    I am trying to solve this problem.
  3. (transitive, governs the accusative) to untie, to extricate, unfasten
  4. (impersonal, of snow) with various meanings, e.g. of snow thawing
    Snjóinn leysir. þolfallsfrumlag (an accusative subject)
    The snow is thawing.
    Móðurinni leystist höfn. þágufallsfrumlag (a dative subject)
    The mother lost her unborn child.

Conjugation edit

Synonyms edit

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit