Díar

Meaning of Old Norse word "díar"

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

díar

m. pl. [the Icel. has two words, but both of them poetical and obsolete, viz. díar answering, by the law of Interchange, to Gr. θεός (Icel. d = Gr. θ), and tívar, by the same law, to Lat. deus (Icel. t = Lat. d); cp. Sansk. devas, Gr. θειος, Lat. dîvus, Ital. dio, Fr. dieu]:—gods or priests; this word occurs only twice, Yngl. S. ch. 2—þat var þar siðr, at tólf hofgoðar vóru æðstir, skyldu þeir ráða fyrir blótum ok dómum manna í milli; þat eru díar kallaðir eðr drottnar,—where diar means not the gods themselves but the priests; and by the old poet Kormak in an obscure periphrasis, in a poem addressed to the staunch heathen earl Sigurd; Snorri (Edda 96), in quoting Kormak, takes the word to mean gods; but the version given in Yngl. S. seems more likely; the díar of the Yngl. S. were probably analogous to the Icel. goði, from goð (deus). The age of Kormak shews that the word was probably not borrowed from the Latin.

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