How many words are there in Icelandic for the devil?

Answer

It is difficult to say how many words there are for devil in Icelandic. Most of the known examples owe their existence to the fact that it was not considered proper to name the devil, so he was referred to by nicknames or by mutation of his name. In the Icelandic thesaurus the following words are listed under fjandi (devil):

• andskoti
• ansakornið
• árakornið
• ári
• defill
• deli
• défsi
• déll
• déskoti
• dífill
• djangi
• djanki
• djöfsi
• sá fetótti
• fjandakornið
• fjári
• freistarinn
• Gamli í Niðurkoti
• grefill
• jónskoti
• kölski
• ólukki
• paufi
• paur
• pauri
• pokur
• rækall
• rækarl
• sá í neðra
• sá vondi
• skolli
• skrambi
• skratti
• skufsi
• tremill
• þremill

A picture from the 14th century showing Lucifer in Dante's Inferno. Lucifer has three heads and continuously chews three arch traitors: Judas, Brutus and Cassius. The image can be clicked for a larger version.

Under kölski (devil) one can find more names:

• sá eineygði
• flugnahöfðingi
• sá gamli
• sá gráskjótti
• sá hrosshæfði
• sá kolbíldótti
• kolbíldur
• ljótikallinn
• myrkrahöfðingi
• óvinur
• satan
• vomur

Under ári (devil) one can find in addition:

• bölvættur
• drýsildjöfull
• drýsill
• illdéfli

and under andskoti (devil):

• ankoti
• ansi
• antoti
• asskolli
• asskoti
• assvíti.

This is a total of 61 distinct names for the devil, but not all such words appear in writing and thus difficult to collect all the instances.

Translated by Paul Richardson.

Further answers in English:

• Are portmanteau words frequent in Icelandic? by Guðrún Kvaran
• Is Icelandic the oldest language in Europe? How old is it? by Jón Axel Harðarson
• What is the origin of the Icelandic language? by Guðrún Kvaran
• Are there rules that say when words in Icelandic should be masculine, feminine and neuter? For a foreigner it is not enough to add an article. by Guðrún Kvaran
• How did the Icelandic language start? by Guðrún Kvaran
• What is the shortest sentence in Icelandic to contain all the letters of the Icelandic alphabet? by Guðrún Kvaran
• How many words are there in Icelandic? by Guðrún Kvaran
• Why do male last names in Icelandic end with -son instead of -sonur? by Guðrún Kvaran

Picture: Godphoto