1. n., contr. form = fé-hús = ‘cow-house,’ [Norse fjös; the contracted form is usual even in the earliest writers]:—a cow-house, byre, stall, Ld. 98, Gísl. 28 sqq., Dropl. 28, Njarð. 368, Sturl. ii. 43, iii. 54, Fms. ix. 508; vera í fjósi, or fara í fjós, to attend to the cows.

COMPDS: fjós-dyr, fjós-haugr, fjós-hlaða, fjós-hurð, fjós-reka, fjós-veggr, etc., the door, mound, barn, hurdle, spade, wall, etc. of a fjós. fjós-gata, u, f. the byre-path, Landn. 51. Fjósa-karlar, m. pl. the ‘byre-carles,’ the three stars in the sword of Orion. fjósa-kona, u, f. a byre-maid, Landn. (Hb.) 51: fjósa-konur, the ‘byre-maids,’ the three stars in the belt of Orion, because the dairy-work is in the winter months (Dec., Jan.) fixed by the rising of these stars. fjósa-verk, n. ‘byre work,’ attendance on the cows, Nj. 185, v. l.

2. mod. þjós, f. the carcase of a whale, Grág. ii. 360, 372, Jb. 310 B (passim).