drengr

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *drangijaz (“staff; stake; man; servant”). Cognate with Old English dreng (“warrior; soldier”).

Noun

drengr m (genitive drengs, plural drengir)

1. a valiant, gallant, chivalrous man
2. lad, youth, a boy
3. one who is bold, reckless, or inexperienced

Declension

Declension of drengr (strong i-stem, s-genitive)

masculine	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	drengr	drengrinn	drengir	drengirnir
accusative	dreng	drenginn	drengi	drengina
dative	dreng	drenginum	drengjum	drengjunum
genitive	drengs	drengsins	drengja	drengjanna

Descendants

• Icelandic: drengur
• Faroese: drongur
• Norwegian Nynorsk: dreng; (dialectal) draing
• Norwegian Bokmål: dreng
• Old Swedish: drænger
  • Swedish: dräng
    • → Northern Sami: reaŋga
    • → Finnish: renki
• Danish: dreng
  • → North Frisian: dräng, dring

Further reading

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