Word.ws English Dictionary

odalism

odalism noun: a system of heritable freehold property rights to odal land.

Noun

odalism (uncountable)

  1. (historical) A system of heritable freehold property rights to odal land.
    • But the King's sagacity had found the pear not ripe — Odalism was sick, but not dead — the project was deferred, and no open attempt was renewed to feudalize the Islands for another generation.1859, David Balfour, Oppressions of the Sixteenth Century in the Islands of Orkney and Zetland: From Original Documents
    • Odalism had this peculiarity: that by whatever means the primal occupant obtained his lands, these descended, free of all service, to his descendants. But we could never understand why an Odaller, who rested on such right alone, should complain if his neighbour, coveting his vineyard, should, by...1861 June 22, David Balfour, “Odal Rights and Feudal Wrongs: a Memorial for Orkney”, in The Athenaeum, page 828

Proper noun capitalized: Odalism

Odalism

  1. A white nationalist ideology that claims European countries as the exclusive property (odal) of white people.
    • Although the father-of-three denounced Breivik for killing Norwegians, the mass murderer is a known fan of Vikernes’ music and his promotion of the racist, anti-semitic ideology of Odalism.2013 July 16, Luke Wilson, “Neo-Nazi murderer Kristian 'Varg' Vikernes arrested for 'plotting major terrorist act' in France”, in Metro
    • In his website he constantly writes articles defending Odalism ideology based on the idea that white Europeans should readopt native European values, namely those belonging to the traditional paganism.2016, Jose Fillipe P.M. Silva, “Black Metal: history, trace of character and archetype”, in Keep It Simple, Make It Fast! An approach to underground music scenes, page 216

Origin of odalism

From odal + -ism.

Neologism, formed from Old Norse óðal (whence also odal) + -ism.

Questions about odalism

What does odalism mean?
Odalism means a system of heritable freehold property rights to odal land.
What part of speech is odalism?
Odalism can be a noun or a proper noun.

Words near odalism in the dictionary

  1. odalborn
  2. odalique
  3. odaliques
  4. odalisk
  5. odalisks
  6. odalism
  7. odalisque
  8. odalisques
  9. odaller
  10. odallers
  11. odalman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: odalism (page history and authors); Odalism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “odalism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/odalism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.