Bygð

Meaning of Old Norse word "bygð"

As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:

Old Norse word bygð can mean:bygð

bygð

f. [búa, byggja]

bygð

I. gener. habitation:

bygð

1. a settling one’s abode, colonisation; Íslands b., colonisation of Iceland, Íb. (begin.); Grænlands b., id.

bygð

2. residence, abode; var þeirra b. ekki vinsæl, Ld. 136; the phrase, fara bygð, or bygðum, to remove one’s house and home, change one’s abode, Grág. i. 457, Nj. 25, 151; færa b. sína, to remove, Fas. ii. 281; banna, lofa e-m bygð, to forbid or allow one’s residence, Grág. l. c.; hitta b. e-s, abode, home, Band. 10: metaph., Hom. 16.

bygð

II. inhabited land, opp. to úbygðir, deserts; but also opp. to mountains, wild woods, and the like, where there are no human dwellings: bygð thus denotes the dwellings and the whole cultivated neighbourhood; thus in old Greenland there was Eystri and Vestri bygð, the Eastern and Western colony, and úbygðir, deserts, viz. the whole Eastern side of this polar land, cp. Landn. 105, Antt. Amer., and Grönl. Hist. Mind, i-iii. In Norway distinction is made between bygðir and sætr, Fms. i. 5. Icel. say, snjór ofan í b., when the mountains are covered with snow, but the lowland, the inhabited shore, and the bottom of the dales are free; í Noregi er lítil b. ok þó sundrlaus, i. e. Norway is thinly peopled, Fms. iv. 140, viii. 200, 202, 203, Eg. 68, 229, Orkn. 8: spec. = county = hérað, í b. þeirri er Heggin heitir, Fms. ix. 232; b. þeirri er Strönd heitir, 358; heima í bygðum, Gþl. 34; miklar bygðir (great inhabited districts) vóru inn í landit, Fms. i. 226.

bygð

COMPDS: bygðarfleygr, bygðarfólk, bygðarlag, bygðarlagsmaðr, bygðarland, bygðarleyfi, bygðarlýðr, bygðarmenn, bygðarrómr, bygðarstefna.

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᛒᚢᚴᚦ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements