maður er manns gaman

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Icelandic

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Etymology

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Literally “person is person’s joy”. (Antonymic is the sentiment of the Latin expression homō hominī lupus (man is a wolf to man).) Compare Norwegian Nynorsk mann er manns gaman.

The proverb is from the forty-seventh verse of the Hávamál, one of the books of the Poetic Edda.[1]

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈmaːðʏr ɛ(ː)r ˈmanːs ˈkaːman/

Proverb

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maður er manns gaman

  1. people enjoy the company of other people
    • Icelandic Rune Poem, found in manuscript AM 461 12mo ([6], [7]):
      Maðr
      er manns gaman
      ok moldar auki
      ok skipa skreytir.
      homo mildingr.
      Man
      delight of man
      and augmentation of the earth
      and adorner of ships.

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Icelandic Web of Science: Hvað þýðir "maður er manns gaman"? (“What does maður er manns gaman mean?”)
  2. ^ “Archived copy”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1], 2008 October 4 (last accessed), archived from the original on 14 May 2008
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ [3]; The Elder or Poetic Edda, edited and translated by Olive Bray (London: Printed for the Viking Club, 1908), pages 61-111
  5. ^ “Archived copy”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[4], 2008 October 4 (last accessed), archived from the original on 17 October 2008
  6. ^ “Archived copy”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[5], 2008 October 4 (last accessed), archived from the original on 12 September 2005