Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.10.2018, Side 121

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svokölluðum „ljótleika“ orða er notuð til að skilgreina merkingarbreytingar nánar.
Einnig er vikið að viðleitni íslenskra kvenna á undanförnum áratugum til að endur-
heimta orðið gleðikona, þ.e. lífga við merkinguna ‘fjörug kona, kona gefin fyrir gleð-
skap’ sem heita mátti gleymd.
Lykilorð: Mál og kyn, merkingarbreytingar, lántaka úr erlendu máli, gleðimaður,
gleðikona
A B S T R A C T
Gleðimenn, gleðimeyjar and Gleðikvennafélag Vallahrepps
The history of gleði- compounds and the reclaiming of the noun gleðikona
This paper discusses the history of the nouns gleðimaður, which is known from Old
as well as Modern icelandic, and gleðikona which first occurs in an 18th-century
source. Other nominal compounds for men and women that have gleði- as their first
member are also introduced. The meaning of these words is compared, as is their
usage, in order to test the claim that the words for men normally have a neutral
meaning (‘cheerful man, party animal’) but the words for women have a pejorative
meaning (‘hussy, prostitute’). The nature of the changes in the history of the gleði-
compounds is also discussed, e.g., to what extent borrowing from a foreign language
has taken place. Lars-Gunnar Andersson’s categorization of the so-called “ugliness”
of words is used for a more detailed definition of the semantic changes. Finally, we
touch on the wish to reclaim the word gleðikona that has been observed in the last
decades, i.e., to revive the practically forgotten meaning ‘cheerful woman, female
party animal’.
Keywords: Language and gender, semantic change, linguistic borrowing, gleðimaður,
gleðikona
Guðrún Þórhallsdóttir
Dósent í íslenskri málfræði
Íslensku- og menningardeild
Hugvísindasviði Háskóla Íslands
Árnagarði við Suðurgötu
iS-101 Reykjavík, Ísland
gth@hi.is
GLEðiMEnn, GLEðiMEYJAR OG GLEðiKVEnnAFÉLAG VALLAHREPPS