VIKA

week

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(gen. pl. vikna), f.

1) week; nú lífa sumarit til átta vikna, till it was eight weeks to winter; hin helga v., Holy-week (after Whitsun); efsta v., the last week of Lent, Passion-week;

2) sea-mile, = vika sjóvar, v. sævar (Ólafseyjar liggja út á firðinum hálfa aðra viku undan Reykjanesi).

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1.

u, f., gen. pl. vikna, pl. vikur: [this can hardly be a genuine Teutonic word, but rather is adopted from Lat. vice, otherwise the k could not have remained unchanged; thus Lat. vicus is Icel. vé, Goth. weihs: Ulf. only uses the word in a single instance, viz. to translate ἐν τη τάξει της ἐφημερίας αὐτου by in wikon kunjis seinis in Luke i. 8, where the Latin text ‘in vice sua’ perhaps suggested the word to the translator; A. S. and Hel. wica; Engl. week; O. H. G. wecha; Germ. woche; Dan. uge; Swed. wecha; in Norse dialects vika, veka, vuku, uku, and in compds -oke, Jóns-oke, Ivar Aasen.]

B. USAGES.—A week, passim: used in a peculiar manner, as marking the remaining weeks of the summer; líðr á sumarit til átta vikna, viz. till eight weeks remained before winter, Nj. 93; var Rútr heima til sex vikna, 10; vá Böðvarr Kolbein Drottins-daginn at fjórum vikum, Ann. 1376. The ancient Scandinavians and Teutons in heathen times seem to have counted the year by pentads, called fimt, as has already been remarked s. v. fimt (p. 153), to which may be added the authority of the late Prof. Schlegel of Copenhagen in a notice of 1825, mentioned in Lex. Mythol. p. 753. The time when the Scandinavians changed their system is quite unknown; it would seem that in Icel. ‘weeks’ were already in use in the middle of the 10th century, could we but trust the record in Íb. ch. 4 as authentic in its details.

II. spec. usages in the calendar; Helga vika, the Holy-week (i. e. after Whitsun), Thom. 22, Dipl. iii. 10, D. I. i. 594; Efsta-vika, the last week of Lent, i. e. Passion-week, Orkn. 386, D. I. i. 594; Páska-vika, Easter-week; Sælu-vika, Ember-week, passim, see Icel. Almanack; as also Auka-vika or Lagningar-vika, the additional week, intercalary week, = sumar-auki, see p. 604; fyrsta Sumar-vika, síðasta vika sumars, síðasta vika vetrar.

COMPDS: vikudagr, vikufrestr, vikuför, vikugamall, vikulagning, vikumunr, vikustafr, vikustef, vikustefna, vikuþing, viknamót, viknatal.

2.

u, f. [a word quite different from the preceding, akin to vik and vík, the root word being víkja, q. v.]:—a sea mile, knot, answering to a mod. geographical mile, and equal to a ‘röst’ on land (see röst, p. 508): the term seems to have been derived from vík, a small bay, denoting the distance from ness to ness, and so referring to a time when ships coasted along-shore; the word is still in almost exclusive use in Icel. The following instances may suffice:—the distance from Reykjanes to Flatey in western Icel. is counted as three viknr (frá Reykjanesi til Flateyjar, þat eru þrjár vikur sjófar, Bs. i. 461); from Drangey in the north to the nearest point on the mainland as one vika (frá Revkjum er skemst til eyjarinnar ok er þat vika sjóvar … þat var vika sjáfar sem skemst var til lands ór eyjunni, Grett. 144, 148); eyjar þær sem Ólafs-eyjar heita, þær liggja út á firðinum hálfa aðra viku undan Reykjanesi, 125; heyrði yfir til Skarfstaða hálfa viku sjóvar (viz. from Ljárskógar), 129; for the respective distances see the map of Icel.: so in Norway, vatnið var hálfrar viku breitt, Fms. viii. 32; sigla þeir fyrir þat torleiði sex vikur sævar, Fb. i. 186: in the Faroes, þangat var skemst ok var þat þó löng vika sjóvar, Fær. 173 (viz. from the Great Dimon to Suðrey): in Greenland, hann lagðisk eptir geldingi gömlum út í Hvalsey, ok flutti á baki sér, þá er hann vildi fagna Eireki frænda sínum, en ekki var sæfært skip heima, þat er löng hálf vika, Landn. 107: great distances at the open sea are counted by ‘tylpt,’ ‘dozens, sc. of knots,’ leaving out the word ‘vika,’ þá mun siglt vera tylpt fyrir sunnan Ísland, Landn. 25: a writer of the 14th century calculates the voyage round Iceland direct from headland to headland at ‘fourteen dozens,’—fjórtan tylptir umbergis at sigla réttleiðis fyrir hvert nes, Bs. ii. 5.