fjórir

From Old Norse fjórir, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr.^[1] Cognates include Faroese fýra and Danish fire.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfjouːrɪr/

fjórir (plural only, feminine fjórar, neuter fjögur)

1. four

   Þar sátu fjórir menn. ― Four men were sitting there.

   Hún er fjögurra. ― She is four years old.

• When counting out loud, the contraction fjór is frequently used.

  Einn, tveir, þrír, fjór. ― One, two, three, four.

The genitive fjögra is common in speech, but fjögurra is preferred in writing. A recent alternative genitive form, fjagra, is very widespread in spoken language, but is only occasionally used in writing.

• fjarki
• undir fjögur augu
• á fjórum fótum

From Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from *kʷetwṓr, the neuter form of Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres. The elder form with -ð- is still visible in the name of Fjaðryndaland (Old Swedish Fiæþrundaland). Proto-Germanic intervocalic d was pronounced ð.

fjórir

1. (cardinal number) four

   fjögurra vegna — to the four cardinal points

• Icelandic: fjórir
• Faroese: fýra
• Norn: fyre
• Norwegian Nynorsk: fjore (archaic, Høgnorsk)
• Elfdalian: fyra
• Old Swedish: fiūrir, fiūri, fȳrir, fȳri
  • Swedish: fyra
• Old Danish: fiūræ, fiūghræ, fȳræ, firæ
  • Danish: fire
    • Norwegian Bokmål: fire
      • → Norwegian Nynorsk: fire

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