Editing Svalbard (section)

== Etymology ==
[[File:Svalbard ESA24544704.jpeg|thumb|left|Satellite photo of Svalbard made by Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, August 2022]]
The name ''Svalbard'' was officially adopted for the archipelago by Norway under the 1925 [[Svalbard Act]] which formally annexed it.<ref name="Berg2013"/> The former name ''Spitsbergen'' was thenceforth restricted to the main island. In 1827 [[Baltazar Keilhau]] first proposed that the [[Old Norse]] toponym {{lang|non|Svalbarði}}, found in medieval Icelandic sources, referred to Spitsbergen.<ref name="Berg2013">{{cite journal |last1=Berg |first1=Roald |title=From "Spitsbergen" to "Svalbard". Norwegianization in Norway and in the "Norwegian Sea", 1820–1925 |journal=Acta Borealia |date=December 2013 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=154–173 |doi=10.1080/08003831.2013.843322|s2cid=145567480 }}</ref><ref name="Isachsen1907"/> Keilhau's theory was revived by [[Gustav Storm]] in 1890 and [[Gunnar Isachsen]] in 1907, at a time when ancient Norse connection to the land would help modern Norway's contested claim to sovereignty.<ref name="Berg2013"/><ref name="Isachsen1907"/> {{lang|no|Svalbard}} is a [[modern Norwegian]] analogue of {{lang|non|Svalbarði}}, which in turn derives from {{lang|non|svalr}} ('cold') and {{lang|non|barð}} ('edge', 'ridge', 'turf', 'beard').<ref name="Isachsen1907"/>

The [[Icelandic Annals]] record that {{lang|non|Svalbarði}} was discovered in 1194, while the {{lang|is|[[Landnámabók]]}} places it four days' sailing north of [[Langanes]].<ref name="Isachsen1907"/> The word {{Wikt-lang|non|dagr|dægr}} "day" might mean either 12 or 24 hours; Isachsen took the latter interpretation, thus discounting [[Jan Mayen]] as {{lang|non|Svalbarði}}.<ref name="Isachsen1907">{{cite journal |last1=Isachsen |first1=Gunnar |title=La découverte du Spitsberg par les Normands |journal=La Géographie |date=June 1907 |volume=15 |issue=6 |pages=421–432 |url=https://archive.org/details/lagographievolu01fragoog/page/421}}</ref> [[Cultural studies]] academic Roald Berg says {{lang|non|Svalbarði}} more likely referred to part of [[Greenland]], but the 1925 renaming cemented Norwegian sovereignty as recognised by the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty (now the [[Svalbard Treaty]]).<ref name="Berg2013"/>

The name ''Spitsbergen'' originated with Dutch navigator and explorer [[Willem Barentsz]], who in 1596 described the "pointed mountains" or, in Dutch, ''spitse bergen'' that he saw on the west coast of the main island. Barentsz did not recognize that he had discovered an archipelago, and consequently the name ''Spitsbergen'' long remained in use both for the main island and for the archipelago as a whole.<ref>[http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic48-3-248.pdf ''In Search of Het Behouden Huys: A Survey of the Remains of the House of Willem Barentsz on Novaya Zemlya'', LOUWRENS HACQUEBORD, p. 250] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327084815/http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic48-3-248.pdf |date=27 March 2009 }}.</ref> Later the main island was sometimes distinguished as ''West Spitsbergen''. The spelling {{lang|de|Spitzbergen}}, with z instead of s, derives from German.<ref>... the Archipelago of Spitsbergen, comprising, with Bear Island... all the islands situated between 10deg. and 35deg. longitude East of Greenwich and between 74deg. and 81 deg. latitude North, especially West Spitsbergen..." ''Treaty concerning the Archipelago of Spitsbergen'' (1920), p. 1.</ref>