Orð og tunga - 26.04.2018, Page 58

Kendra Willson: Splitting the atom 47
requires genitive compounding (Baldur Jónsson 1984:74), making the
prefi x frumeinda(r)- three syllables, longer than atóm-. This may also
contribute to making atóm- compounds somewhat catchier. The infl u-
ence of Atómstöðin is likely also a factor contributing to the popularity
of atóm- compounds.
Of the 23 examples of frumeind in ROH, 20 refer to its literal, scien-
tifi c meaning. Seven of these include the gloss “atom”. The three ex-
amples of metaphorical usages are all from the mid-twentieth century.
(1) Ég tel allar tilraunir til þess að leysa estetiskar kenndir
upp í frumeindir sínar ekki einungis hæpnar og til vilj-
unarkenndar (Brynjólfur Bjarnason 1961:106)
[I regard all attempts to separate aesthetic sensibilities
into their basic units as not just unlikely and hap hazard]
(2) Efnahagsleg undirstaða hins gamla samfélags hefur
rofn að. En frumeind hennar var búið, heim ilið. (Einar
Ol geirs son 1954:245)
[The economic basis of the old society has fallen apart.
For its basic unit was finished, the home.]
(3) að grafast fyrir um einföldustu ,,frumeindir“ gáfn anna.
(Matthías Jónasson 1955:43)
[to root around for the simplest “basic units” of talent.]
In the last of these examples, the quotation marks indicate a meta-
phorical usage. The other two examples could either be taken as met-
aphorical usages of the scientifi c term or a reversion to the more basic
meaning of ‘basic unit’, as indicated in the glosses.1
The archive lists 62 head words which are compounds contain-
ing frumeinda(r)- as their fi rst element. The citations (a total of 94) ap-
pear to refer in almost all cases to scientifi c concepts used in their
literal sense or metonymically for the branch of science concerned
with these.
23 of 25 examples of atóm (n.) and all 5 examples of the alternate
form atóma (f.) also refer to the concept in its literal, scientifi c sense.
However, while the majority of the 104 compounds formed with
atóm(a)- also do so, a substantial number of these formations (around
25) also relate to the atom poets, modern arts or the associated aes-
thetics and world situation.
1 A more general term for ‘basic unit’ is frumeining, used e.g. in the context of
weights and measures.
tunga_20.indb 47 12.4.2018 11:50:36