Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of Scandinavia or its peoples, languages, or cultures.
  • adjective Of or relating to a human physical type exemplified by the tall, narrow-headed, light-skinned, blond-haired peoples of Scandinavia. Not in scientific use.
  • adjective Of or relating to cross-country skiing.
  • adjective Of or relating to a competitive event featuring cross-country racing, ski jumping, and biathlon.
  • noun A native or inhabitant of Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, or Finland.
  • noun A person of the Nordic physical type. Not in scientific use.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In anthropology, of or pertaining to the type of man inhabiting northwestern Europe and characterized by tall stature, blond hair, blue eyes, and elongated head. Also called Teutonic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective of or pertaining to the inhabitants of Scandinavia.
  • adjective Relating to Germany and Scandinavia.
  • adjective Resembling the peoples of Scandinavia.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or relating to the Nordic countries.
  • adjective Of or relating to the light colouring and tall stature of Nordic peoples.
  • adjective linguistics Of or relating to the family of North Germanic languages.
  • adjective skiing Of or relating to cross-country skiing or ski jumping. (Compare alpine.)
  • noun A person of Nordic descent or having features typical of Nordic people.
  • noun ufology A race of extraterrestrials similar in appearance to Nordic humans.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to Germany and Scandinavia
  • adjective resembling peoples of Scandinavia
  • adjective of or relating to or constituting the Scandinavian group of languages
  • noun the northern family of Germanic languages that are spoken in Scandinavia and Iceland

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French nordique, from nord, north, from Old French nort, from Old English north; see ner- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown, possibly from the French word nord or the Dutch noord, both of which are used to refer to the northward direction. Compare to Old English norþ, the Proto-Germanic *nurþan, *nurþran (“north”), and to the Proto-Indo-European *ner- (“lower, bottom; to sink, shrivel").

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