a, m., pl. skeggjar, in the compds, eyjar-skeggjar, ‘island-shaggies,’ i. e. islanders, freq. in the Sagas, prob. originally a sort of soubriquet, owing to the notion that islanders were more rough and wild in their habits than other men; the word is particularly used of the Faroe islanders, Fær., Ó. H.: cp. Götu-skeggjar, the name of a family from Gata in Faroe; Mostrar-skeggr, the nickname of Thorolf of Moster, an island in Norway, Eb., Landn.; cp. hraun-skeggi, the man of the wilderness, Fs.