veira

Icelandic

Etymology

Coined by Director General of public health Vilmundur Jónsson in 1955 based on feyra (“putridness, mustiness; decay”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈveiːra/

  Rhymes: -eiːra

Noun

veira f (genitive singular veiru, nominative plural veirur)

1. virus (DNA/RNA causing disease)
2. computer virus

Declension

declension of veira

f-w1	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	veira	veiran	veirur	veirurnar
accusative	veiru	veiruna	veirur	veirurnar
dative	veiru	veirunni	veirum	veirunum
genitive	veiru	veirunnar	veira	veiranna

Synonyms

• (pathological virus): vírus
• (computer virus): vírus, tölvuveira, tölvuvírus

References

• Sapir, Yair, Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2008) “Icelandic: Phonosemantic matching”, in Judith Rosenhouse & Rotem Kowner, editors, Globally speaking: Motives for adopting English vocabulary in other languages‎^[1], Clevedon-Buffalo-Toronto: Multilingual Matters, pages 19–43