Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Page 53

HJARTA DREPR STALL
51
said to mean ‘beat’ (“palpitare”) and the phrase dattar hiarta fyri
briósli hörmm is translated “illi cor palpitat.”45 This information
supports the view that datta really means ‘to beat violently’ and in
the same direction points the Swedish dialectal verb datta, which
according to Rietz’s dictionary40 means “skakas” (i.e., ‘to be
shaken’) and according to ULMA is also found in the sense “stöta”
(i.e., ‘jolt, hump’) and “skaka” (i.e., ‘shake’).47
c) In modern Icelandic the phrase fá hjartslátt af hrceðslu, i.e.,
‘to get a beating heart from fear’, is rather common and corre-
sponding expressions are to he found in many languages. It may he
pointed out, for instance, that the word hjartslag was used in a
similar way in older New-Swedish and in Danish the expression
med bankende hjerte, i.e., ‘with beating heart’, is fairly common.
2nd category
The second category can be divided into three groups. The ori-
ginal meaning of the phrases belonging to group 1 is that ‘the heart
changes its place in the body’ without it being said in so many words
whether the heart goes up or falls down. Group 2 has the meaning
‘the heart falls down’; group 3 ‘the heart ascends in the body’.
a) As an instance of group 1 we can take the modern Icelandic
phrase hafa hjartað á réttum stað ‘have a friendly disposition’. This
phrase is without doubt borrowed from Danish have hjertet pa det
retle sted, cf. hjertet sidder (ham) pá det rette sted, which has the
same meaning as the Icelandic phrase and also preserves the older
and more original meaning ‘to be brave’.48 The corresponding
Swedish phrase hava hjártat pá rátta stállet has the same meaning
4r' Lexicon islanilico-latino-danicum Biörnonis Haldorsonii (Havniæ 1814)
I, 140.
i0Svenskt dialekt-lcxilcon af Jolian Ernst Rietz (Malmö, Köpenhamn, Leip-
zig, London 1867).
47 Information from Bjarni Guðnason, then Lektor in Uppsala, now Pro-
fessor in the University of Iceland. ULMA Uppsalu landsmálsarkiv.
48 Ordbog over det danske Sprog grundlagt af Verner Dahlerup [ODSI
(Kptbcnhavn 1918—54), under hjerte.