býsna-

(að), v.

1) to bode, portend (þetta býsnar tjón ok sorg);

2) býsna skal til batnaðar, things must run to an extreme before they get better.

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að, to portend, bode; þetta býsnar tjón ok sorg, Karl. 492; the proverb, býsna skal til batnaðar, i. e. things must be worse before they are better, Old Engl. ‘when bale is highest, bote is nighest,’ Fms. v. 199, (spelt bisna, O. H. L.); er býsna skal at betr verði, x. 261.

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n. and f. wonder, portent (þetta eru stór býsn).

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n. [cp. A. S. bysen, bisen, which means example, whilst the Icel. word means] a wonder, a strange and portentous thing; commonly Used in pl., urðu hverskonar býsn, 625. 42; þar sem þessi býsn (acc. pl.) bar fyrir, Fms. xi. 13; þetta eru stór býsn, 64; slíkt eru banvæn býsn, Fas. iii. 13 (in a verse); sing., Fms. xi. 10, 64: in mod. use fem. sing., Fb. i. 212, Pr. 76, 91; býsna-veðr, portentous weather, Fms. iii. 137; býsna-vetr, a winter of portents, when many ghosts and goblins were about, Bs., Sturl. i. 115; býsna-sumar, in the same sense, Ann. 1203. In mod. use býsna- is prefixed to a great many words in the sense of pretty, tolerably, Germ. ziemlich; býsna-vel, b. góðr, langr, fljótr, pretty well, pretty good, etc. in early writers the sense is much stronger.