svær

See also: svär and svär-

Danish

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /svɛːˀr/, [ˈsʋ̥ɛˀɐ̯], [ˈsʋ̥ɛɐ̯ˀ], [ˈsʋ̥æɐ̯ˀ]
  • Homophone: sværd

Etymology 1

From Old Norse svǫrðr m, from Proto-Germanic *swarduz (“rind, turf”), cognate with Norwegian Bokmål svor, Swedish svål, English sward. The Danish form has the vowel of the plural (sverðir).

Noun

svær c (singular definite sværen, plural indefinite svær)

  1. rind
  2. crackling
Declension
Declension of svær
common
gender		 Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative svær sværen svær sværene
genitive sværs sværens sværs sværenes
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Old Danish swar, from Old Norse svárr, from Proto-Germanic *swēraz, cognate with Swedish svår, German schwer, Dutch zwaar, Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌴𐍂𐍃 (swērs). The vowel of the modern Danish form is probably due to German influence. Doublet of svar.

Adjective

svær (neuter svært, plural and definite singular attributive svære)

  1. difficult, hard, stiff, tough
  2. (now rare) heavy, massive, solid
  3. severe
  4. portly, stout
Inflection
Inflection of svær
Positive Comparative Superlative
Indefinte common singular svær sværere sværest2
Indefinite neuter singular svært sværere sværest2
Plural svære sværere sværest2
Definite attributive1 svære sværere sværeste
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Perhaps from a side form to Old Norse svárr (“hard, heavy”)

Adjective

svær (masculine and feminine svær, neuter svært, definite singular and plural svære)

  1. heavy, massive, huge, large, tremendous

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Perhaps from a side form to Old Norse svárr (“hard, heavy”), or from Middle Low German schwer.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ʂʋæːr/

Adjective

svær (neuter svært, definite singular and plural svære, comparative sværare, indefinite superlative sværast, definite superlative sværaste)

  1. big, massive; huge
    Dyret var svært.
    The animal was massive.
  2. unusual
    Det var då svært so lang tid dette skulle ta.
    This took unusually long.

References
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