Orð og tunga - 01.06.2015, Qupperneq 18

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Orð og tunga
tions to word stems that were already in the language.) Written forms
with the prefix variant bí- (<bi>, <bij>, <by> etc.) seem to be more com-
mon in the early centuries, while be-forms gradually become most
common, probably due to increased knowledge of, and contact with,
Danish, especially Danish written texts.
The nineteenth-century words are those in (2) (the translations are
approximate):
(2) bebrillaður adj. 'bespectacled', bebúa vb. 'inhabit', bedraga vb. 'de-
ceive', bedragari m. 'fraudster', bedrift f. 'achievement', befinna sig
vb. 'find oneself [offended, etc.]', begrípa vb. 'understand', behage-
legur adj. 'comfortable', behandla vb. 'treat', beklagelegur adj. 're-
grettable', bekleðning f. 'clothing', bekostnaður m. 'expense', belasta
vb. 'load (a ship)', belærður adj. 'educated', bemerkning f. 'remark',
bereiddur adj. 'prepared', berömtur adj. 'famous', besetning f. 'or-
nament (on garments)', bestemma vb. 'determine', bestikkstafla f.
'chart-room table', besvara vb. 'reply', betalingsfi-estur m. 'dead-
line for payment', betalingsheimta f. 'collection of payment', betal-
ingsleysi n. 'nonpayment', betalingsmáti m. 'method of payment',
beteinkning f. 'consideration', betrekk n. 'upholstery', betrekkja vb.
'upholster', bevertning f. 'pub', bevitna vb. 'certify', bevisunarskjal
n. 'letter of evidence', beþéning f. 'domestic servants', bífatta vb.
'meddle', bíræðni f. 'insolence', bíræfinn adj. 'impudent, adventur-
ous, foolhardy', bíræfni f. 'foolhardiness', bíræfnislegur adj. 'fool-
hardy', bísperrtur adj. 'bolt upright'.4
Fully reliable examples of new, nineteenth-century words are, how-
ever, fewer than what this might suggest. Indeed, as far as we know,
eleven out of these 38 words from OH's collections (bedraga, bedrift,
befinna, behagelegur, behandla, belasta, belærður, bemerkning, berömtur,
besvara, bevitna) only appear in one book (Þorlákur O. Johnson 1879),
a satirical novel mocking the Danish-influenced merchants of Reykja-
vík. Therefore, it is not a particularly reliable source.
It should also be pointed out that seven out of the nineteen be-/bí-
words that first appear in twentieth-century texts are from historical
novels: bífalingsmaður m. 'officer' (a fre-variant is attested in 1570), be-
drag n. 'deception', bíkenning f. 'confession', bemerkja vb. 'note', bískera
vb. 'crop, cut' and bískorinn past part. (adj.), and beþenkilegur adj. 'criti-
4 Bísperrtur and the verb bísperrast (in list (4) below) may not be loanwords; see 2.2
below.