VAXA

This article is on the verb ​vaxa​, which in English means​ grow​ or​ increase​. A lot of you will likely
already be able to guess the meaning of this word if you have a background in Scandinavian
languages as it is cognate with Danish / Norwegian ​vokse​, Swedish ​växa,​ though you can
probably also see the similarity with ​wachsen ​in German or​ wassen​ in Dutch / Low German. In
Old English it was ​weaxan ​and had almost the exact same semantic meaning and use as it has in
Modern Icelandic today. This verb has dropped out of common usage in English, but some of you
might be familiar with the verb ​to wax ​in English. Its primary meaning in Modern English means
to apply wax to something, but there is a different verb with the same name. This verb is a
cognate to ​vaxa ​in Icelandic. The meaning relates specifically to the moon when it starts to
appear larger. This sense of the word is exactly that the moon is ​growing ​or​ increasing​ (in size)
in the sky. Its the opposite of ​wane ​/ ​waning​.

This verb is a strong verb, which means that it undergoes a lot of changes in different tenses. If
you are familiar with the conjugation of the verb ​fara​, then it’s similar to that (present tense ​a
vowel becomes ​e​, the dental suffix in the second person singular present tense, past tense
singular vowel becomes ​ó​). There are a few other changes, mainly in the past tense plural
conjugations where the main vowel is ​u​ and you apply the regular rule of dropping a​ v​ before an
u ​(a very regular rule in Icelandic).

You can check out the conjugation over at ​BÍN​:

The present participle of this verb (ending in ​-inn​ because it is a strong verb) is ​vaxinn​ and
means the same as the English translation’s present participle, i.e. ​grown​. It’s often used in
reference to people and another translation, ​built​, might be more appropriate in some
situations. This word often combines with a few other words in the language to derive some
pretty common words it is worthwhile knowing.

há​vaxinn​ - tall (lit. ​high built)​

lág​vaxinn​ - short (lit. ​low built)​
grann​vaxinn​ - slim (lit. ​thin built)​
smá​vaxinn​ - small (of stature, height, lit. ​small built)​
of​vaxinn​ - overgrown (lit. ​too (much) grown​)
risa​vaxinn​ - giant (lit. ​huge​/​giant built)​

You can also see this participle (​vaxinn​) commonly used with a noun in the dative case directly
preceding it. This usage typically implies ​covered with i​ n the sense that the noun preceding
vaxinn​ has ​grown​ all over the the subject of the sentence. A few examples should make this
usage clear.

grasi vaxinn​ - ​covered with grass​ (‘​grass​’ here is in the dative case -> ​grassi​)
skógi vaxinn​ - ​covered with forest / forest-covered

Here is an excerpt from a site discussing Perlan, in the wooden area of Reykjavik called
Öskjuhlíð. In the third paragraph you can see an example of the usage above (‘covered with
forest’) in the description that says, “​Öskjuhlíð is therefore a forest-covered happy place”​
(​sælureitur​ / ​happy place ​is definitely a word to know). Although, it should be noted a more
formal translation should probably be used here, but if you’ve lived next to this area for 2 years,
you completely accept this translation no matter the formality of the document.

You can use this structure as a way to say that someone is suited for something. In this sense it
means more that a person is to-something built.
Again, examples should make this clear:

Hann er ekki þessu starfi vaxinn ​- ​He is not suitable (built) for this job
Þeir eru ekki vandanum vaxnir​ - They are not suitable (built) for the task / problem

This last example above uses the word ​vandi ​(problem / task) and describes them as not ​being
built for the problem​, meaning that they are ​not the right people for the job​, not the ​right people
to solve the task​ etc. Another real world example of this is in this article (“​Portúgalar ekki
vandanum vaxnir​”), which describes the Portuguese national football team’s loss against South
Korea in 2002. They only needed to draw in order to continue in the competition but they were
just…. not up to the task (​ekki vandanum vaxnir​!) as the article describes.

To end, here are a few simple sentences using the verb ​vaxa:​

Grasið ​vex
The grass​ is growing

Peningar ​vaxa ​ekki á trjám

Money doesn’t ​grow​ on trees

Skógurinn ​óx ​og ​óx

The forest ​grew​ and ​grew

Börnin ​vaxa ​hratt fyrstu árin

Children​ grow​ quickly in their first years

Hann er vel ​vaxinn

He is (physically) well ​built