DÍS

(pl. dísir), f.

1) sister (heitir ok systir dís);

2) a female guardian angel, goddess;

3) maid.

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f., pl. disir, and an older but obsolete form jó-dís, which remains in the earliest poems, jódís (the sister of) úlfs ok Nara = Hela, Ýt. 7; but Loga dís, the sister of Logi, 9; cp. Edda 109: it also remains in the Icel. fem. pr. name Jódís,—the explanation given in Skálda 183 (from jór, equus, and dís) has no philological value, being only the poet’s fancy: [Hel. idis = virgo; A. S. ides; Grimm ingeniously suggests that the Idistaviso in Tacitus may be corrupt for Idisiaviso, the virgin-mead, from idis and viso = Germ. wiese.]

I. a sister, Ýt. l. c.; heitir ek systir, dís, jódís, a sister is called dis and jódís, Edda 109; dís skjöldunga, the sister of kings, Bkv. 14.

II. generally a goddess or priestess (?), a female guardian-angel, who follows every man from his birth, and only leaves him in the hour of death, cp. the very interesting passages, Hallfr. S. Fs. 114, Þorst. Síðu H. Anal. 184, 185, Gísl., Fms. ii. 192–195 (cp. Nj. 148); hence the phrase, ek kveð aflima orðnar þér dísir, the dísir have left thee, thou art a lost man, Am. 26; cp. also the phrase, heillum horfinn.

2. poët. a maid in general, Lex. Poët.

3. freq. in Icel. as a fem. pr. name, in compds, Jó-dís, Her-dís, Val-dís, Vig-dís, Hjör-dís, etc.

COMPDS: dísablót, dísasalr, dísaskald.