vitenskap

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

videnskap (now nonstandard, officially since 1959, in Riksmål since 2024)

Etymology

From viten (“knowledge”) +‎ -skap (“-ship”). Structurally inherited from Danish videnskab, itself after Middle Low German wētenschap (cf. German Wissenschaft). The form with ⟨t⟩ was formed by Knudsen after the underlying verb vite (“to know”), according to his general policy of avoiding inconsistencies between Norwegian and Danish consonantism. In actual usage, the word was exclusively pronounced with /d/, and vitenskap was therefore not standardized before 1938.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈʋiːtənˌskɑːp/

Noun

vitenskap m (definite singular vitenskapen, indefinite plural vitenskaper, definite plural vitenskapene)

science, scholarly knowledge, scholarship (collective discipline of learning acquired through any scholarly method; totality of knowledge)
any academic discipline; in general, the sciences and humanities taken as a whole

Usage notes

Vitenskap has a much broader meaning than the English word science. The English word science refers to systematically acquired, objective knowledge obtained through a particular methodology (such as the scientific method), and includes only natural sciences, social sciences, and formal sciences. In contrast, vitenskap also includes the humanities and philosophy and refers to learning and knowledge in general, whether obtained through scientific or non-scientific means. For example, writing a scholarly book about an author's life and works is vitenskap but not "science".