áðr

See also: adr, ADR, -aðr, and adr.

Old Norse

Etymology 1

Traditionally derived from Proto-Germanic *ēdrô (“quickly, promptly”), from *ēdraz (“quick, prompt”) and thus cognate with Old English ǣdre, Old Frisian ēdre, Old Saxon ādro, Old High German ātar, but this doesn't fit well semantically. A better derivation is from Proto-Norse *āriʀ (*āriʀ), from Proto-Germanic *airiz (“earlier”) and thus cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌹𐌶 (airiz, “earlier”) and English ere[1].

Alternative forms

áðan

Adverb

áðr (not comparable)

already
before, heretofore, ere
- Vǫluspá, verse 46, lines 7-10, in 1860, T. Möbius, Edda Sæmundar hins fróða: mit einem Anhang zum Theil bisher ungedruckter Gedichte. Leipzig, page 7:
  […] skeggöld, skálmöld,
  skildir 'ro klofnir,
  vindöld, vargöld,
  áðr veröld steypisk; […]
  […] axe-age, sword-age,
  shields are cloven
  wind-age, wolf-age,
  ere the world falls; […]
until

Descendants

Icelandic: áður
Faroese: áður

Participle

áðr

past participle of æja

Declension

Strong declension of áðr

singular	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	áðr	áð	átt
accusative	áðan	áða	átt
dative	áðum	áðri	áðu
genitive	áðs	áðrar	áðs
plural	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	áðir	áðar	áð
accusative	áða	áðar	áð
dative	áðum	áðum	áðum
genitive	áðra	áðra	áðra

Weak declension of áðr

singular	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	áði	áða	áða
accusative	áða	áðu	áða
dative	áða	áðu	áða
genitive	áða	áðu	áða
plural	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	áðu	áðu	áðu
accusative	áðu	áðu	áðu
dative	áðum	áðum	áðum
genitive	áðu	áðu	áðu

References

Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*airi”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 12

áðr