Kristiansand

English

Proper noun

Kristiansand

1. A city and municipality in Agder county, Norway.

Norwegian Bokmål

Kristiansand's city center, called "Kvadraturen", seen from the air in Norway.

Alternative forms

• Christianssand, Christiansand

Etymology

First part from Kristian, after Christian IV of Denmark, the King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 to 1648, who founded the city on the 5th of July 1641. Last part from sand (“sand”), referring to the sandy headland the city was built on, where the river Otra has its outlet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkrɪstɪansan/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -an
• Hyphenation: Kri‧sti‧an‧sand
• Homophones: Christianssand, Christiansand

Proper noun

Kristiansand

1. Kristiansand (a city and municipality of Agder, Norway)
2. Kristiansand (a historical county from 1671 to right before 1700 in Norway)

Derived terms

• kristiansander (“a person from Kristiansand”)
• kristiansandenser (“a person from Kristiansand diocese, or from the city of Kristiansand”)

References

• “Kristiansand” in Store norske leksikon
• “Kristiansand amt” in Store norske leksikon

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

A Norwegianised spelling of Danish Christianssand, from Christian +‎ sand (“sand”). Named after Christian IV of Denmark who initiated the construction of a “kvadratur” on the place in 1641.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /krɪstjanˈsan(d)/
• (Kristiansand) IPA^(key): [kɰɛ̞sjɐ̞nˈsɐ̞nː], [kɰɪstjɐ̞nˈsɐ̞nː]
• Hyphenation: Kri‧stian‧sand, Kri‧sti‧an‧sand

Proper noun

Kristiansand m

1. A city and municipality of Vest-Agder, Norway. The sixth-largest city in Norway.

Usage notes

Due to the foreign origin of the name, using the name of a Danish king, various Norwegian alternatives have been proposed. The most prominent of these are Storesand (literally “Big Sand”), cf. the nearby Lillesand (“Little Sand”), and Otros (“the outlet of the river Otra”), variously spelled Otteros and Oteros.

Derived terms

• kristiansandar (“someone from Kristiansand”)
• Kristiansandsfjorden (“the Kristiansand Fjord”)

References

• Jørn Sandnes, Ola Stemshaug (1997) Norsk stadnamnleksikon, Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, →ISBN