hǫfn

See also: höfn

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *habanō, *habnō (“harbour, haven”).

Noun

hǫfn f (genitive hafnar, plural hafnir)

1. port, harbor, haven
2. foetus
3. coat, cloak
4. tenure (of land)

Inflection

Declension of hǫfn (strong ō-stem)

feminine	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	hǫfn	hǫfnin	hafnar	hafnarnar
accusative	hǫfn	hǫfnina	hafnar	hafnarnar
dative	hǫfn	hǫfninni	hǫfnum	hǫfnunum
genitive	hafnar	hafnarinnar	hafna	hafnanna

Derived terms

• hafnarljós
• munnshǫfn
• yfirhǫfn

Descendants

• Icelandic: höfn
• Faroese: havn, høvn
• Norwegian Nynorsk: hamn
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hamn
• Old Swedish: hamn, hafn
  • Swedish: hamn
• Danish: havn
  • Norwegian Bokmål: havn
• → Latin: Hafnia (“Copenhagen”) (learned)

Further reading

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “höfn”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 223; also available at the Internet Archive