This is page 48 of An Icelandic-English Dictionary by Cleasby/Vigfusson (1874)

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48 AVERKI -- B.

14; but in general use áverk includes every bodily lesion, a collective expression for wounds and blows (sár and drep); lýsa s&aolig;r eðr drep ok kveða á hver á. eru, i. 35; bauð húskarlinn honum í móti öxi ok á., Bs. i. 341, vide áverki below. II. in pl. work in a household; göra brúar ok vinna þau á., Grág. ii. 277: of unlawful work, e.g. cutting trees in another man's forest; verðr hann þá útlagr þrem mörkum ok sex aura á., ef hann veit eigi, at þeir eigu báðir, 292.

á-verki, a, m. I. a law term, lesion in general, produced by a weapon or any deadly instrument, more general than the neut.; lýsi ek mér á hönd allan þann áverka; ... sár, ef at sárum görist; víg, ef at vígi görist, Grág. ii. 32, Nj. 86, Fær. 223, Sturl. i. 148. II. (Norse) the plant of a household, produce of a farm; landskyld heimilar lóð (Lat. fundus) ok allan áverka þann er í kaup þeirra kom, ... as agreed upon between landlord and tenant, Gþl. 329; skipta görðum eptir jarðarhöfn (Lat. fundus) ok öllum áverka (including buildings, fences, crop, etc.), 380; skal hann löggarð göra ... ok vinna þann áverka á landi hins þar er hvárki sé akr né eng, 277. β. unlawful; útlegð ok sex aura áverki, Grág. ii. 296; hvervetna þar sem maðr hittir á. í mörk sinni, þá skal hann burt taka at ósekju, Gþl. 363. COMPDS: áverka-bót, f. compensation for an averki (II. β.), Gþl. 363. áverka-drep, n. a stroke, blow producing áverki (I.), Grág. ii. 16. áverka-maðr, m. a perpetrator of an áverki (I.), Grág. ii. 13. áverka-mál, n. an action concerning averki (I.), Grág. ii. 96, Nj. 100.

á-viðris, mod. áveðra (áveðrasamr, adj.), adv. on the weather side, Fms. viii. 340, 346, 378.

á-vinna, vann, to win, make profit, v. vinna á.

á-vinningr, m. profit, gain, Fms. xi. 437, Gþl. 212.

á-vinnt, n. adj. a naval term, prob. from the phrase, vinda á e-n, to turn upon one in a rowing race, or of giving way in a sea-fight; ef Orminum skal því lengra fram leggja sem hann er lengri en önnur skip, þá mun á. um söxin, ... then they in the bow will have a hard pull, will be hard put to it, Fms. ii. 308, Thom. 17, 58; þá görðist þeim á. er næstir lágu, their ranks begun to give way, Sturl. iii. 66 (of a sea-fight); ætla ek þat mund er ek renn frá Haraldi unga, at yðr afburðarmönnum mun á. þykkja eptir at standa, Orkn. 474.

á-virðing, f. blame, fault.

á-vist, f. abode, = ábúð, Bs. i. 725.

á-vita, adj. ind. in the phrase, verða e-s á., to become aware of, learn, Andr. 623. 80, Fms. x. 171; á. mannvits eðr íþrótta, Sks. 26.

á-vitull, m. a law term, the indicia of a thing; skuli þeir rannsaka allt; ok svá göra þeir, ok finna þar öngan ávitöl (acc.), Fær. 186; grunar hann nú, at kerling muni hafa fengit nokkurn (MS. wrongly nokkura, acc. fem.) ávital, hverr maðr hann er, Thom. 158.

á-víga, adj. ind. in the phrase, verða á., of a chief on whose side most people are killed in a battle, in respect to the pairing off of the slain in the lawsuit that followed; þat vóru lög þá, þar at (in the case that) menn féllu jafnmargir, at þat skyldi kalla jamvegit (they should be paired off, no compensation, or 'wergeld,' should be paid, and no suit begun), þótt manna munr þætti vera; en þeir er á. urðu skyldi kjósa mann til eptir hvern mæli skyldi, Glúm. 383; vide Sir Edm. Head, p. 93.

á-vísa, að, to point at, indicate, Lex. Poët.

á-vísan, f. an intimation, indication, Stj. 78 (of instinct), Fas. iii. 541; epitaphium þat er á., 732. 15.

á-vít, [víti], n. pl., ávítan, f., Thom. 246, Th. 19 (mod. ávítur, f. pl.), a reprimand, rebuke, castigation; ávíta, gen. pl., Fær. 23; bera ávít (acc. pl.), Sks. 541, Hkr. ii. 200, Hom. 43. COMPDS: ávíta-laust, n. adj. blameless, Sks. 802, Hom. 160. ávíta-samligr and ávít-samligr, adj. blamable, Sks. 577. ávít-samr, adj. chiding, severe, zealous, Bs. i. 392, Greg. 64.

á-víta, að, to chide, rebuke; á. e-n, Fs. 58; á. e-n um e-t, Fms. x. 372, Landn. 51; á. e-t (acc. of the thing), Bs. i. 766: pass., Hom. 84.

á-væni, n. (ávæningr, m.) = áván, Gþl. 51.

á-vöxtr, ar, m., dat. ávexti, acc. pl. ávöxtu (mod. ávexti), prop. 'on-wax,' 'on-growth,' i.e. fruit, produce, growth, Stj. 35, Fms. ix. 265: metaph., á. kviðar þíns, 655 xiii. β. metaph. interest, rent [cp. Gr. GREEK], Grág. i. 195; verja fé til ávaxtar, Fms. v. 194, 159, iii. 18: gain, Bs. i. 141. COMPDS: ávaxtar-lauss, adj. unproductive, Grág. i. 173, Fms. x. 221. ávaxtar-tíund, f. a Norse law term, a sort of income tax, opp. to höfuðtíund; nú er hverr maðr skyldr at göra tíund sá er fjár má afla, bæði h. (tithe on capital) ok á. (tithe on interest), N. G. L. i. 346.

á-þekkr, adj. similar, Fms. ii. 264, xi. 6, Vsp. 39.

á-þétti, n. or áþéttr, ar, m. a law term in the COMPD áþéttis-orð or áþéttar-orð, n. defamatory language, invective, liable to the lesser outlawry, Grág. (Sb.) ii. 143, Valla L. 204.

á-þjá, ð, to oppress, Eg. 8, Fms. i. 21.

á-þján, f. oppression, tyranny, oppressive rule, Eg. 14, 47, Fms. v. 26: servitude, heavy-burdens (= álögur), vii. 75, x. 416 (where áþjánar, pl.), Sks. 79, v.l. (coercion). COMPD: áþjánar-ok, n. the yoke of tyranny, Al. 7.

á-þrætni, f. mutual strife, Stj. MS. 227, col. 491.

á-þyngd, f. exaction, oppression, Js. 13.

á-þyngja, d, á. e-m, to oppress one.

á-þyngsli, n. a burden, (mod. word.)

B (bé) is the second letter. In the Phenician (Hebrew) alphabet the three middle mutes, b, g, d, etc., follow in unbroken order after a. In the Greek the same order is kept; in Latin, and hence in all European alphabets, a confusion arose, first, by giving to the UNCERTAIN (the old Greek gamma) the value of k (c), and thereby throwing g out of its original place: secondly, by placing e and F (identical in form with UNCERTAIN, the old Greek digamma) immediately after the d; thus, instead of the old Greek (and Hebrew) a, b, g, d, e, f, we got a, b, c, d, e, f, g, etc. In the old Slavonian alphabet v (vidil) was inserted between the b and g (Grimm Introd. to lit. B). In the old Runic alphabet the order became still more disjointed; the common rude Scandinavian Runes have no special g or d, and their b is put between t and l, nearly at the end of the alphabet (... t, b, l, m, y). In all the others b kept its place at the head of the consonants, immediately after a, which stands first in almost all alphabets.

A. Among the vowels a begins more words than any other vowel: it contains the three great prepositions, af, at, and á, which, with their compounds, along with those of al- and all-, make up more than half the extent of the letter; it abounds in compound words, but is comparatively poor in primitive root words. Again, b is in extent only surpassed by the consonants h and s; in regard to the number of root words it is equal to them all, if not the foremost. It is scanty in compounds, has no prepositions, but contains the roots of several large families of words, as, for instance, the three great verbs, bera, bregða, and búa; besides many of secondary extent, as binda, bíða, biðja, etc.; and a great number of nouns. The extent of b is greatly reduced by the fact, that the Scandinavian idioms have no prefix be-, which in the German swells the vocabulary by thousands (in Grimm it takes up about 300 pages); the modern Swedes and Danes have during the last few centuries introduced a great many of these from modern German; the Icel. have up to the present time kept their tongue pure from this innovation, except in two or three words, such as betala or bítala (to pay), befala or bífala (to commend), behalda or bíhalda (to keep), which may, since the Reformation, be found in theol. writers; the absence of the prefix be- is indeed one of the chief characteristics of the Icel. as opposed to the German; the English, influenced by the northern idiom, has to a great extent cut off this be-, which abounds in A. S. (v. Bosworth, A. S. Dictionary, where about 600 such words are recorded); even in the Ormulum only about thirty such words are found; in South-English they are more frequent, but are gradually disappearing. Again, b represents p in Scandinavian roots; for probably all words and syllables beginning with p are of foreign extraction; and the same is probably the case in German and English, and all the branches of the Teutonic (vide Grimm D. G. iii. 414); whereas, in Greek and Latin, p is the chief letter, containing about a seventh of the vocabulary, while b contains from one seventieth to one ninetieth only. It might even be suggested that the words beginning with b in Greek and Latin are (as those with p in the Teutonic) either aliens, onomatopoëtics, provincialisms, or even cant words.

B. PRONUNCIATION. -- The b is in Icel. sounded exactly as in English: I. as initial it is an agreeable sound in all the branches of the Teutonic, especially in the combinations br and bl, as in 'bread, brother, bride, bloom, blithe, blood, bless,' etc. etc. The Greek and Roman, on the other hand, disliked the initial b sound; but the difference seerns to be addressed to the eye rather than the ear, as the π in modern Greek is sounded exactly as Icel. b, whilst β is sounded as Icel. v; thus the Greek GREEK in Icel. rendered phonetically by vísundr, but GREEK (biskup, bishop) is in all Teutonic dialects rendered by b, not p, probably because the Greek π had exactly this sound. II. but although agreeable as the initial to a syllable, yet as a middle or final letter b in Icel. sounds uncouth and common, and is sparingly used: 1. after a vowel, or between two vowels, b is never sounded in Icel. as in modern German geben, haben, laub, leben, leib, lieb; in all those cases the Icel. spells with an f, sounded as a v. Ulfilas frequently uses b, e.g. graban, haban, saban, ïba, gabei, etc.; yet in many cases he vacillates, e.g. giban, graban, gêban, grôbun, tvalib, but gaf and grôf, etc. So gahalaiban on the Gothic-Runic stone in Tune, but hlaifs, Ulf., Luke vi. 48. The Greek and Latin abound in the use of the b (bh) in the middle of syllables and inflexions (-bus, -bills, -bo): in Icel. only a double b may be tolerated, but only in onomatopoëtic or uncouth words, as babbi (pa of a baby), bobbi (a scrape), stubbi (Germ. stumpf), lubbi (Germ. lump), nabbi (a knob), krabbi (a crab), gabb, babbl, babbla, etc.; cp. similar words in English. 2. joined to a consonant; α. in old Swedish b is inserted between m and r or m and l (as in mod. Greek μρ and μλ are sounded μβρ and μβλ, e.g. Swed. domber, komber, warmber, hambri, gamblar = Icel. dómr, komr (venit), varmr, hamri, gamlar: Swed. kumbl and kubl (Icel. kuml, monumentum) are used indifferently. Even in old Icel. poems we find sumbl = suml, symposium, simbli = simli, Edda i.