Näcken

Swedish

proper noun

Definitions

(folklore) Nix; a water creature in human form who, amongst other things, could lure people to drown in his river by his wonderful violin play

Etymology

Derived from Old Norse nykr derived from Proto-Germanic *nikwiz- derived from Proto-Indo-European *nigʷ-.

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*nigʷ-

Gloss

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms

*nigʷ- Proto-Indo-European
nøkk Norwegian Bokmål
*nikwiz- Proto-Germanic
nykk Norwegian Nynorsk
nykr Old Norse
nykur Icelandic
nykur Faroese