åska

• oska (Late Modern Swedish)

From Early Modern Swedish variants: āska, åscka, åskja, oschia, åsikia, åsekia, åsäckia, åsökia, åsökja, asökia (compare dialectal åseka), from Old Swedish āsikkia (nominative), āsækyu (oblique). Compound of ås (“Æsir (singular), Norse god”) +‎ ökja (“carting”), the latter, an older unstandardised variant of äcka (“carting”), initially a Proto-Norse verbal noun to åka (“to go, going”). No cognate is attested in Old West Norse, but a potential form would be *áseykja, consisting of ás (“Æsir (singular), Norse god”) +‎ eykja (“carting”).

The word may have started as a noa-name. It refers to the Norse god Thor driving around in his chariot above the clouds and killing giants with his hammer Mjölnir, which according to myth produced the sound of thunder as he hit them.

åska c

1. thunder (the sound caused by lightning)

   Synonyms: dunder, (dated or poetic) tordön

2. lightning (discharge of atmospheric electricity)

• Usually uncountable. The plural forms åskor and åskorna occur in poetic language, but are rare.

• blixt

åska (present åskar, preterite åskade, supine åskat, imperative åska)

1. (impersonal, intransitive) to thunder

• åska in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• åska in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• åska in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• åska in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)