samloka

Icelandic

Etymology

sam- (“co-, syn-”) +‎ loka (“latch, catch, bolt”), apparently referring to the way shellfish "clamp" their shells together.

The "sandwich" sense is due to the resemblance of a sandwich (particularly a submarine sandwich) to various shellfish, especially mussels, with the top and bottom bread slices resembling the shell of a shellfish.

Noun

samloka f (genitive singular samloku, nominative plural samlokur)

1. sandwich
2. shellfish

Declension

Declension of samloka (feminine, based on loka)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	samloka	samlokan	samlokur	samlokurnar
accusative	samloku	samlokuna	samlokur	samlokurnar
dative	samloku	samlokunni	samlokum	samlokunum
genitive	samloku	samlokunnar	samloka, samlokna	samlokanna, samloknanna

Further reading

• “samloka” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)