aptann

Old Norse

Alternative forms

aftann, aptunn, eptann

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *ēbanþs (“evening”). Cognate with Old English ǣfen, Old Frisian ēvend, Old Saxon āvand, Old Dutch avont, Old High German aband.

Pronunciation

(12th century Icelandic) IPA^(key): /ˈɑɸtɑ̄nː/

Noun

aptann m (genitive aptans, plural aptnar)

an evening
- Óláfs saga helga 131, in 1829, Þ. Guðmundsson, C. C. Rafn, Þ. Helgason, Fornmanna sögur, Volume IV. Copenhagen, page 308:
  […] þat varð til tíðinda um aptaninn síð, er myrkt var vorðit, […]
  
  […] it happened in the late evening, when in it was dark, […]

Declension

Declension of *aptann* (strong a-stem)
masculine	singular		plural
masculine	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	aptann	aptanninn	aptnar	aptnarnir
accusative	aptan	aptaninn	aptna	aptnana
dative	aptni	aptninum	ǫptnum	ǫptnunum
genitive	aptans	aptansins	aptna	aptnanna

Derived terms

aptandrykkja (“evening carouse”)
aptankveld (“evening”)
aptanlangt (“all the evening”)
aptanskæra (“twilight”)
aptanstjarna (“evening star”)
aptansǫngr (“evensong”)
aptansǫngsmál (“time of evensong”)
aptantími (“eventide”)
aptna (“to become evening”)

Descendants

Icelandic: aftann m
Faroese: aftan m
Norwegian Nynorsk: aftan m, eftan m; (dialectal) apta f, afta m, efta m
Old Swedish: afton, aftan, apton, aptan
- Swedish: afton c
Old Danish: aftæn
- Danish: aften c
  - Norwegian Bokmål: aften m

Further reading

Richard Cleasby, Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1874) “aptann”, in An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, page 23
Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “aptann”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 18; also available at the Internet Archive