foss

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɑs/, /fɔs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɒs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

foss (plural fosses)

1. Alternative spelling of fosse.

From Icelandic or Norwegian foss, both from Old Norse fors (“waterfall”). Doublet of force (“waterfall”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɔs/

foss (plural fosses)

1. (Northern England) A waterfall.
   • 2017, Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole, Bloomsbury, published 2019, page 101:

     Another of his flock was spotted garrotted, one found twisted and drowned at the bottom of a foss and a third split cleanly from scut to teeth.

• IPA^(key): /fɔsː/
• Rhymes: -ɔsː

foss

1. indefinite accusative singular of fossur
2. indefinite genitive singular of fossur

• fossál

fosik +‎ -j

• IPA^(key): [ˈfoʃː]
• Hyphenation: foss
• Rhymes: -oʃː

foss

1. second-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of fosik

• fors

Inherited from Old Norse fors.

Cognates: Faroese fossur, Norwegian fors, Danish fors, Swedish fors, English force (in the sense of a waterfall), Middle Low German vorsch and Norn fors.

• IPA^(key): /fɔsː/
• (Northern Iceland, Southern Iceland) IPA^(key): [fɔs̠ː]
• Rhymes: -ɔsː

foss m (genitive singular foss, nominative plural fossar)

1. a waterfall (permanent flow of water over the edge of a cliff)

• → English: foss

From Danish fos, revived through Norwegian foss, from Old Norse foss, fors, from Proto-Germanic *fursaz.

foss m (definite singular fossen, indefinite plural fosser, definite plural fossene)

1. a waterfall

• fossefall
• vannfall, vassfall

• fosse (verb)

• → English: foss

• “foss” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• fors
• førs, føss (dialectal)

From Old Norse fors, foss, from Proto-Germanic *fursaz.

• IPA^(key): /fosː/, [fɞ̞sː]

foss m (definite singular fossen, indefinite plural fossar, definite plural fossane)

1. a waterfall

   Synonyms: fossefall, vassfall

• fossa (verb)

• → English: foss

• “foss” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “foss” in Ivar Aasen (1873) Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring

From Proto-Celtic *uɸostos, from Proto-Indo-European *upo-sth₂-ós, from *upó (“under”) +‎ *steh₂- (“to stand”) +‎ *-ós (“agent suffix”).^[1][2] Cognate to Welsh gwas (“servant”).

foss m (genitive foiss)

1. servant

From Proto-Celtic *wostos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to stay”). Cognate to Middle Welsh gwas (“abode”).^[3]

foss m (genitive foiss)

1. rest, halt, the state of not being in motion
2. perseverance

• Irish: fos

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 foss, fos 'man-servant'”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 foss 'rest'”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language