gen. eyjar; dat. eyju and ey, with the article eyinni and eyjunni; acc. ey; pl. eyjar, gen. eyja, dat. eyjum; in Norway spelt and proncd. öy; [Dan. öe; Swed. ö; Ivar Aasen öy; Germ. aue; cp. Engl. eyot, leas-ow, A. S. êg-land, Engl. is-land; in Engl. local names -ea or -ey, e. g. Chels-ea, Batters-ea, Cherts-ey, Thorn-ey, Osn-ey, Aldern-ey, Orkn-ey, etc.]:—an island, Fas. ii. 299, Skálda 172, Eg. 218, Grág. ii. 131, Eb. 12; eyjar nef, the ‘neb’ or projection of an island, Fb. iii. 316.

2. in various compds; varp-ey, an island where wild birds lay eggs; eyði-ey, a deserted island; heima-ey, a home island; bæjar-ey, an inhabited island; út-eyjar, islands far out at sea; land-eyjar, an island in an inlet, Landn.: a small island close to a larger one is called a calf (eyjar-kálfr), the larger island being regarded as the cow, (so the southernmost part of the Isle of Man is called the Calf of Man): it is curious that ‘islanders’ are usually not called eyja-menn (islandmen), but eyjar-skeggjar, m. pl. ‘island-beards;’ this was doubtless originally meant as a nickname to denote the strange habits of islanders, Fas. i. 519 (in a verse), Fær. 151, 656 C. 22, Fms. ii. 169, viii. 283, Grett. 47 new Ed.; but eyja-menn, m. pl., Valla L. 228, Eb. 316 (and in mod. usage), cp. also Götu-skeggjar, the men of Gata, a family, Landn.; eyja-sund, n. a sound or narrow strait between two islands, Eg. 93, Fms. ii. 64, 298.

3. in local names: from the shape, Lang-ey, Flat-ey, Há-ey, Drang-ey: from cattle, birds, beasts, Fær-eyjar, Lamb-ey, Sauð-ey, Hrút-ey, Yxn-ey, Hafr-ey, Svín-ey, Kið-ey, Fugl-ey, Arn-ey, Æð-ey, Má-ey, Þern-ey, Úlf-ey, Bjarn-ey: from vegetation, Eng-ey, Akr-ey, Við-ey, Brok-ey, Mos-ey: from the quarters of heaven, Austr-ey, Norðr-ey, Vestr-ey, Suðr-ey (Engl. Sudor): an island at ebb time connected with the main land is called Örfiris-ey, mod. Öffurs-ey (cp. Orfir in the Orkneys): from other things, Fagr-ey, Sand-ey, Straum-ey, Vé-ey (Temple Isle), Eyin Helga, the Holy Isle (cp. Enhallow in the Orkneys). Eyjar is often used κατ ἐξοχήν of the Western Isles, Orkneys, Shetland, and Sudor, hence Eyja-jarl, earl of the Isles (i. e. Orkneys), Orkn. (freq.); in southern Icel. it is sometimes used of the Vestmanna eyjar.

β. in old poets ey is a favourite word in circumlocutions of women, vide Lex. Poët.; and in poetical diction ey is personified as a goddess, the sea being her girdle, the glaciers her head-gear; hence the Icel. poetical compd ey-kona. For tales of wandering islands, and giants removing islands from one place to another, vide Ísl. Þjóðs. i. 209.

4. in female pr. names, Þór-ey, Bjarg-ey, Landn.: but if prefixed—as in Eyj-úlfr, Ey-steinn, Ey-mundr, Ey-vindr, Ey-dís, Ey-fríðr, Ey-vör, Ey-þjófr, etc.—ey belongs to a different root.

COMPD: eyjaklasi.