Magne Rommetveit (4 October 1918 – 6 January 2009) was a Norwegian lexicographer. He was born in

Stord Stord is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since it has such a variety of landscapes: coastline, fjords, forests, agricultural ...

. He

finished Finished may refer to: * ''Finished'' (novel), a 1917 novel by H. Rider Haggard * ''Finished'' (film), a 1923 British silent romance film * "Finished" (short story), a science fiction short story by L. Sprague de Camp See also *Finishing (disa ...

his secondary education in

Voss Voss () is a municipality and a traditional district in Vestland county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages include Bolstadøyri, Borstrondi, Evanger, Kvitheim, Mjølfjell, ...

in 1940 and took the cand.philol. degree in 1950. He worked as a lexicographer associated with the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

, and eventually became a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de con ...

and professor of Nynorsk philology from 1978 to 1988. He was involved in '' Nynorskordboka'' and '' Norsk ordbok'', but his main work was the agricultural lexicon ''Norsk landbruksordbok''. Commencing the work in 1955, it was published at

Samlaget Det Norske Samlaget is a Norwegian publishing house founded on 24 March 1868 with the aim to promote and publish books in Landsmål, now known as Nynorsk. ''Det Norske Samlaget'' is now divided into two institutions: a literature organization, ' ...

in 1978 with 80,000 entries. He later wrote the more popular book on Nynorsk synonyms, ''Med andre ord''. Published in 1985 as a follow-up of the earlier ''På godt norsk'', it was reissued several times. He was a co-founder of several

Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-N ...

institutions in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

: Kringkastingsringen which fought for Nynorsk use in the

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

, where he was general manager from 1955 to 1970; the weekly newspaper ''

Dag og Tid Dag, or variant forms, may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''DAG'' (American TV series), 2000–2001 * ''Dag'' (Norwegian TV series), 2010–2015 * ''DAG'' (newspaper), a former free Dutch newspaper * DAG (band), an American funk band * D ...

'' in 1962 for which he coined the name; and the news agency Nynorsk Pressekontor in 1969. He became an honorary member of

Noregs Mållag Noregs Mållag (literally "Language Organisation of Norway") is the main organisation for Norwegian Nynorsk (New Norwegian), one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language. In the Norwegian language conflict, it advocates the ...

in 1998.

References

1918 births 2009 deaths People from Stord Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian lexicographers Nynorsk-language writers 20th-century lexicographers {{Norway-academic-bio-stub