Orð og tunga - 01.06.2011, Page 102

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Orð og tunga
Kock, Ernst A. 1926. Notationes Norrœnæ. Anteckningar till Edda och skalde-
diktning. Sjunde delen. (Lunds Universitets Ársskrift. N.F. Avd.l. Bd 22.
Nr 1.) Lund/Leipzig: C.W.K. Gleerup/Otto Harrassowitz.
Lex.poet. = Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæseptentrionalis. Ordbogover det norsk-
islandske skjaldesprog. 1931. Oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2.
udg. ved Finnur Jónsson. Kobenhavn: S.L. Mollers Bogtrykkeri.
Pokorny, Julius. 1959. lndogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. I. Band.
Bem/Stuttgart: Francke Verlag.
Stefán Karlsson. 2000. Stafkrókar. Ritgerðir eftir Stefán Karlsson gefnar út í til-
efni af sjötugsafmæli hans 2. desember 1998. Ritstjóri Guðvarður Már Gunn-
laugsson. Reykjavík: Stofnun Áma Magnússonar á Islandi.
Lykilorð
karnaðr — kör — að kaupa ambátt frelsi — íslensk málsaga — orðsifjar — söguleg
beygingar- og orðmyndunarfræði
Keywords
kamaðr — kör — to free a slave woman — history of Icelandic — etymology — his-
torical morphology
Abstract
This paper discusses the Old Icelandic hapax karnaðr, which is preserved in the Codex
Regius of Grágás where its meaning and formation must be inferred from the phrase
kaupa til karnaðar sér ambátt 'buy a female slave for one's karnaðr'. Sections 2 and 3
discuss earlier accounts of the meaning and development of the masculine »-stem
karnaðr, e.g., Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon's contribution. Sections 4 and 5 compare the
sentence containing karnaðr in Codex Regius to the version attested in Staðarhólsbók.
It is concluded that the phrase kaupa til karnaðar sér ambátt, occurring in a chapter on
manumission, referred to the legal procedure of freeing a bondwoman, and that,
contrary to the most widely held opinion, the noun karnaðr did not have direct sexual
connotations. In section 6 the author suggests that Olcel. karnaðr meant 'care', its
closest cognates being Olcel. kpr 'infirmity', Go., OS kara, OE cearu 'care, concem'
and OHG kara Tament' (< PGmc. *kar-ö < PIE *gor-eh2, to the PIE root *ger- 'cry, com-
plain').
Guðriín Þórhallsdóttir
íslensku- og menningardeild
Hugvísindasviði Háskóla íslands
Árnagarði, Suðurgötu
101 Reykjavík
gth@hi.is