lævíss

== Old Norse == === Etymology === From læ (“harm, betrayal, deceit, bane”) +‎ víss (“wise, knowing”). Literally "knowing in læ" or "wise in læ". === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈlɛːˌwiːsː/ === Adjective === lævíss crafty guileful deceitful ==== Usage notes ==== Foundational Old Norse-English dictionaries, such as Cleasby & Vigfússon (1874), translate lævíss primarily as "crafty." It should be noted that in 19th-century English, the word "crafty" still retained its older definition of being "skillful, ingenious, or dexterous at a trade" alongside its negative connotations of deceit (e.g., Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary defines it as "artful; cunning; in a good sense, or in a laudable pursuit"). The semantic narrowing of the English gloss "crafty" to exclusively mean "manipulative" in modern English can obscure the literal meaning of the Old Norse compound ("wise/knowing in læ"). ==== Quotations ==== c. 1200, Poetic Edda, Hymiskviða 38: Fórut lengi áðr liggja nam hafr Hlórriða hálfdauðr fyrir; var skirr skǫkuls skakkr á banni, en því inn lævísi Loki of olli. They had not gone far before Hlórriði’s goat lay half-dead before them; the trace’s team-mate was lamed by a curse, and the crafty Loki was the cause of that. === References === Richard Cleasby; Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1874), “læ”, in An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, page 398 Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), “lævíss”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive