þjóna

From Old Norse þjóna. Akin to Danish tjene, German dienen.

• IPA^(key): [ˈθjouːna]

  Rhymes: -ouːna

þjóna (weak verb, third-person singular past indicative þjónaði, supine þjónað)

1. to serve someone, to be in someone's service [intransitive or with dative]
   • Judges 2:19

     En er dómarinn andaðist, breyttu þeir að nýju verr en feður þeirra, með því að elta aðra guði til þess að þjóna þeim og falla fram fyrir þeim. Þeir létu eigi af gjörðum sínum né þrjóskubreytni sinni.

     But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshipping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

2. to serve someone's table, to wait on someone [intransitive or with dative]

   Synonym: þjóna til borðs

• þjóna engum tilgangi (“to serve no purpose”)
• þjóna lund sinni (“to suit oneself, to fact according to one's impulses”)
• þjónn
• þjónusta

Either inherited from Proto-Germanic *þewanōną and influenced by þjónn (“slave, servant”) or borrowed from Old Saxon thionon, which is derived from the same.^[1]

þjóna

1. to serve

• þjónan f (“service, attendance”)
• þjónasta f (“service; eucharist”)
• þjónka

• þéna

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “þjóna”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 513; also available at the Internet Archive