n. [a word widely applied and common to all Teut. languages; the Goth. is not on record; A. S. tûn; Engl. town; O. H. G. zûn; Germ. zaun; Norse tûn]:—prop. a hedge; this sense is still used in the Germ. zaun; but in Scandin. the only remnant seems to be the compd tun-riða (see B).

II. a hedged or fenced plot, enclosure, within which a house is built; then the farm-house with its buildings, the homestead; and lastly, a single house or dwelling: in Norway tun is = Dan. gaards-plads, the quadrangle or premises annexed to the buildings; whereas ‘bö’ answers to the mod. Icel. ‘tún:’ in Norse deeds each single farm is called tún, í efsta túni í Ulfalda-stöðum, D. N. ii. 534: the same usage of the word town remains in Scotland, see Scott’s Waverley, ch. ix, sub fin.: many of the following examples run from one of these senses into the other; tefldu í túni teitir vóru, Vsp.; allir Einherjar Oðins-túnum í, Gm.; ok gullu við gæss í túni, Skv. 3. 29, Gkv. 1. 15; hér í túni, 2. 39; ok er þeir koma heim þá er Úlfr fóstri þeirra heima í túni fyrir, Fb. i. 133; jarls menn tóku skeið ór túninu, galloped out of the tún, Orkn. 416: this sense still remains in phrases as, ríða í tún, to arrive at a house, Nj. 23; cp. skal hann ei bráðum bruna í tún, bóndann dreymdi mig segir hún, Bb.; fara um tún, to pass by a house; þeir fóru um tún í Saurbæ, Bs. i. 647; þá fara þeir Ingi hér í tún, 648; í túni fyrir karldyrum, K. Þ. K.; tún frá túni, from house to house, Karl. 129, 138; þeir fá brotið skjaldþilit, ok komask út fram í túnit, ok þar út á riðit, Grett. 99 (Cod. Ub.); ok er þeir kómu á Ré, gengu þeir ór túni á veginn, fylktu þeir fyrir útan skíð-garðinn, Fms. vii. 324; borgir eða héruð eða tún, x. 237; borgir ok kastala, héruð ok tún, Karl. 444; fór ek um þorp ok um tún ok um héraðs-bygðir, Sks. 631.

2. in Icel. a special sense has prevailed, viz. the ‘enclosed’ in-field, a green manured spot of some score of acres lying around the dwellings; bleikir akrar, slegin tún, Nj. 112; skal hann ganga út í tún at sín, Grág. (Kb.) ii. 209; var þá fluttr farmr af skipinu upp í tún at Borg, Eg. 163; um einn völl svá til at jafna sem eitt tún vítt vel ok kringlótt, Fms. vii. 97; látið hesta vára vera nærri túni, Lv. 44; í túninu í Mávahlíð, Eb. 58; í túninu í Odda mun finnask hóll nokkurr, Bs. i. 228, and so passim in old and mod. Icel. usage; thus tún and engiar are opposed.

III. metaph. in poets; snáka tún, ‘snake-town,’ i. e. gold; reikar-tún, ‘hair-town’ i. e. the head, Lex. Poët.; bragar tún, the ‘town of song,’ i. e. the mind, the memory of men, Ad. (fine); mun-tún, the ‘mind’s town,’ i. e. the breast, Fas. i. (in a verse); mælsku tún, hyggju tún, the ‘speech town,’ ‘mind’s town,’ i. e. the breast. Lex. Poët.: in local names, but rare, Túnir: Túns-berg, in Norway; Sig-túnir, a place of victory, in Sweden; Tún-garðr, in Icel., Landn.

B. COMPDS: túnannir, túnbarð, túnbrekka, túnfótr, túngarðr, túngöltr, túnhlið, túnkrepja, túnriða, túnasláttr, túnsvið, túnsvín, túnsækinn, túnvöllr.

☞ The ancient Scandinavians, like other old Teutonic people, had no towns; Tacitus says, ‘nullas Germanorum populis urbes habitari satis notum est… colunt discreti ac diversi, ut fons, ut campus, ut nemus placuit,’ Germ. ch. 16. In Norway the first town, Níðarós, was founded by the two Olaves (Olave Tryggvason and Saint Olave, 994–1030), and this town was hence par excellence called Kaupang, q. v. But the real founder of towns in Norway was king Olave the Quiet (1067–1093); as to Iceland, the words of Tacitus, ‘colunt diversi ut fons, etc., placuit,’ still apply; 120 years ago (in 1752), the only town or village of the country (Reykjavík) was a single isolated farm. In the old Norse law, the ‘Town-law’ is the new law attached as an appendix to the old ‘Land-law.’