Etymology

Oslo

O1S1L1O1

Today it means: A county and municipality, the capital city of Norway. Formerly called Christiania and Kristiania. Full definition →

Norwegian Oslo ← Old Norse Ósló ← Proto-Germanic *ansuz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*lauhō f
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*ansaz
  3. Proto-Germanic · derived from*ansuz
  4. Old Norse · derived fromÓsló
  5. Norwegian · borrowed fromOslo
  6. English todayOslo

From Norwegian Oslo, from Old Norse Ósló, Ásló f or n. The first element is disputed, but is likely from ǫ́ss, áss (“god; one of the Æsir”), from Proto-Germanic *ansuz. Another theory is that it comes from áss (“hill, beam”), from Proto-Germanic *ansaz, but this is unlikely. The second element is ló f or n (“meadow”), from Proto-Germanic *lauhō f, *lauhaz m (compare the suffix -ley in English place-names).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*ansuz all →

AnselmAngierÆsir

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.