f., gen. dat. acc. dóttur, plur. dœtr, later dætr or dætur; gen. dætra, dat. dætrum; the Icel. keeps a single t throughout in the plur., whereas Swed. and Dan. have döttre; dættr also occurs in Sks. B. (a Norse MS.), and at least once or twice in poetry, cp. the rhyme, Ægis dættr ok tættu, Edda (Ed. A. M.) i. 324; and Hlés dættr, Skálda 198: [Gr. θυγάτηρ; Ulf. dauhtar; A. S. dohtor; Engl. daughter; Swed. dotter; Dan. datter; O. H. G. tohtar; Germ. tochter; the Greek has a short υ, and the Goth. has au, answering to Gr. ο; the diphthongal ó and the double t in the Scandin. is only caused by the suppression of the middle consonant gh]:—a daughter; hann átti dóttur eina er Unnr hét, Nj. 1; Þóra dóttir Sigurðar Orms í auga; Þorgerðr dóttir Þorsteins ens Rauða, 2; Höskuldr átti sér dóttur er Hallgerðr hét, id.; er illt at eiga dáðlausa sonu, ok víst ætla ek yðr til þess betr felda at þér værit dætr föðurs yðvars ok værit giptar, Ld. 236; gott skaplyndi hefðit þér þá fengit, ef þér værit dætr einhvers bónda, 216; nú veit ek at þú ert d. en ekki sonr, er þú þorir eigi at verja frændr þína, Háv. 43. If suffixed to a name, -dóttir denotes a woman, -son a man, e. g. Þorsteinn Egils-son, but his sister Þorgerðr Egils-dóttir; Halldórr Ólafs-son, but Halldóra Ólafs-dóttir, vide the Index of Names to Landn., the Sagas, etc.: this custom, in early times common to all Teut. people, is still in almost exclusive use in Icel., where a lady keeps her name all her life, whether married or not: einga-dóttir, only daughter; sonar-dóttir, son’s daughter; dóttur-dóttir, a daughter’s daughter, a granddaughter, Grág. i. 171; dóttur-maðr, a son-in-law, Germ. eidam, Fms. ix. 240, Grág. i. 175: the waves are poët. called Ránar-dætr, Hlés-dætr, Ægis-dætr, the daughters of Ran, etc., Edda: the Earth is daughter of Onar, and, on the mother’s side, of Night, Edda; the Sun is daughter of Mundil-fari, 7.

2. Dótta is a fem. pr. name in Denmark, prob. akin to daughter, Fms. vi.