svefnpurka

Icelandic

Etymology

From svefn (“sleep”) +‎ purka (“a miserable or a sleepy person”). The noun purka is a rare word which has quite a few other meanings in Icelandic such as “something of small height” (compare the Danish purk (“a small lad”) or the dialectal Swedish purka (“a short and chubby woman; sow; miser”)).

The oldest written example from the Orðabók Háskólans ("the University Dictionary") of the word svefnpurka is from a Latin-Icelandic dictionary, written and published in 1738 by Jón Árnason ^(is). There the given translation of the Latin word dormitor (from the Latin verb dormiō (“to sleep”)) is svefnpurka and sísofandi. It is possible that Jón had in fact coined this compound himself as a myriad of Icelandic words in that dictionary are of his own concoction.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsvɛpːʏr̥ka]
• IPA^(key): [ˈsvɛpnˌpʰʏr̥ka] (overenunciation)

Noun

svefnpurka f (genitive singular svefnpurku, nominative plural svefnpurkur)

1. a sleepyhead, a lie-a-bed/lieabed, a sluggard

Declension

Declension of svefnpurka (feminine)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	svefnpurka	svefnpurkan	svefnpurkur	svefnpurkurnar
accusative	svefnpurku	svefnpurkuna	svefnpurkur	svefnpurkurnar
dative	svefnpurku	svefnpurkunni	svefnpurkum	svefnpurkunum
genitive	svefnpurku	svefnpurkunnar	svefnpurkna, svefnpurka	svefnpurknanna, svefnpurkanna

References

• Kristín Bjarnadóttir, editor (2002–2025), “svefnpurka”, in Beygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls [The Database of Modern Icelandic Inflection] (in Icelandic), Reykjavík: The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies