Orð og tunga - 01.06.2015, Page 19

Veturliði G. Óskarsson: Loanwords with the prefix be-
7
cal'. Two words are from sailor language, bestikhús n. and bestikks-
koja f. 'chart room'; and bíræður adj. 'daring, impudent' is probably a
combination of two older words, bíræfinn and bíræðinn. Interestingly
enough, the twentieth-century words befjötra, bíglenntur, bíhlæjandi,
bíleggirí, bíloka and bíþræta (discussed in more detail in 2.2 below) are
probably native Icelandic coinages, and OH only has examples of
them from spoken language (one example of each) — which indicates
a certain productivity in word-formation, and might also indicate a
greater frequency of be-jbí- than what is otherwise to be concluded
from the present data. The only really new loanword with be- in the
twentieth century seems to be behollari (beholdari) 'container', first
attested in a text correcting some "language defects" (Jón Jónasson
1914).5
To put things in a wider context, it can be useful to look at a few
Icelandic dictionaries from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centu-
ries, and the be-/bí-words included in them, either as full dictionary
entries or as used in translations and comments:
In an Icelandic-Latin dictionary from 1683, finished by its author
before 1654 (Guðmundur Andrésson 1683/1999), there are four be-/bí-
words among the dictionary entries (or secondary entries): the verbs
befala, betala, bíklína and the adjective bíræfinn. Of these, befala 'com-
mand' is said to be the modern equivalent of older fela in this same
meaning ("Eg fel / Commendo ['I command'], hodie ['today'] Befel /
ad befala ['to command'] / Veteribus ['old'] fela ..." 1683/1999:45).
Bíræfinn 'foolhardy' is said to be a vulgar and corrupted form of
bifi'ænn ("Bifrænn / vulgo & corrupte byræfin: petulans", p. 19), al-
though in fact bíræfinn is from Danish (< Old Danish beræven) and bif-
rænn is probably a native Icelandic transformation of that word. The
small number of such words in the dictionary may indicate that they
were not very common, or at least that the author did not consider
that they needed clarification.
In a Latin-Icelandic dictionary from 1738 (Jón Árnason 1738/1994),
twenty-two be-/bí-words, belonging to ten word-stems, are used in
Icelandic explanations of various Latin words (the translations are
approximate):
5 Besides these are the compound words betrekkspappír m. 'wallpaper-paper' (1904,
1905) and begrafelsiskleina 'fried pastry served at funerals' (example from spoken
language, dated to c. 1980; temporary coinage?), but the word stems, betrekk n. and
begrafelsi n., are from the nineteenth and the seventeenth centuries, respectively.