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Definition 2024

mannvitsbrekka

mannvitsbrekka

Icelandic

Noun

mannvitsbrekka f ‎(genitive singular mannvitsbrekku, nominative plural mannvitsbrekkur)

  1. genius; an sarcastic way of referring to a person's wit
  2. (nickname, archaic) a hill of man's wit, a paragon of wisdom

References

  1. 1 2 3 Icelandic Web of Science: Hver er uppruni orðsins mannvitsbrekka og hvar kemur það fyrst fyrir? (“Where does the word “mannvitsbrekka” come from and where did it originate?”)

Etymology

From mannvit ‎(“sense, knowledge”) and brekka whose meaning has not fully been determined,[1] possibly used as a emphatic suffix to mean “a paragon of wisdom”. Found in archaic speech, two women have the nickname landnáma in Landnámabók (“The Book of Settlements”)[1]

The oldest example of the word from later usage is from 1915, but it is generally used sarcastically.[1]

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