Word To Use Today: liver.

Think of a word that's full of the joy of sunshine.

I bet you didn't come up with liver, did you.

No, because to most of us liver is either something squishy inside us, never thought of unless it happens to go wrong, or something that looks like a slab of mud that sometimes ends up on our plate.


Photo by Schellack

To make things even lovelier, the word liver comes from the Greek word for fat. Yum.

But in Iceland...

You may think you have it dark and gloomy in winter where you live, but the chances are that in Iceland it's worse. Miles worse. The sun hardly gets above the horizon for weeks on end, and that means that (apart from bumping into things a lot when you go out) you get hardly any of the vitamin D you need from sunlight.

So where do you get it from?

If you're Icelandic, the chances are it's from lysi.

Lysi is a traditional supplement for Icelandic children: it's quite common for nurseries to dish the stuff out daily.

What is it?

Liver. Well, cod liver oil, in any case.

The word lysi, by the way, has nothing to do with fat. No, instead lysi is related to the word lysa, which means illuminate. That's because it gives you vitamin D, just as the sun does in the summer.

Lysi: golden liquid sunlight.

It's almost enough to make me want to rush down to the pharmacist for some cod liver oil.

But not quite.

Word To Use Today: liver. The English word comes from the Greek liparos meaning fat.