Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1971, Page 123

Faroese Bird Name Qrigins
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with Far. blikur, Norw. -blik, Swed. -bleg, whioh presuppose
ON *blikr m., beside recorded blik n. ‘shine, splendor’. This
form of rhe bird name is reminisoent of the type represented
by ON lómr ‘red-throated diver’ lit. ‘moan’, etc., quoted in
the foregoing section. It must be another instanoe of the
secondary application of an abstract noun to name a bird.
Far. blikur, etc., thus belong to an archaic statum in the
nomenclature, apparently older than the Icelandic, which
seems to have innovated by turning an ordginal abstraot into
an agent noun.
Jóhannesson does not consider the question of motivation.
However, it seems unproblematic. The term will have been
inspired by the gorgeous plumage of the male, in particular
by the resplendent white feathers, all in marked contrast to
the monotonous brown of the plain and unpretentious female.
The term will therefore be proper to the eider, its extended use
to designate the drake of other species in Icelandic beinig a
later, local development.
ÚRTAK
Fuglanøvnini glibbari ‘skarvsungi’ og meyrus ‘skú(g)vur’ eru lýst sum
heldur ungar navnorðagerSir burtur úr óuppskrivaðum sagnorðum *glibba
‘skræða x seg’ og *meyra ‘skríða; kláa’, sbr. norskt glibba, maura við
hesum merkingum. Ætlað er, at orðið havhestur kann vera komið av tí
neggjandi ljóði, sum er stundum at hoyra á málinum í hesum fugli.
Navnið nakkalanga ‘álka’ kemur av høvuðburði hjá fuglinum, meðan
sjálvt orðið álka er greitt sum enn ófunnið orð fyri ‘hálsi’. Skúgvur,
skúvur, forxmorrønt skúfr er runnið av eltingarljóði hjá fuglinum og hevur
verið tillíikt fornmorrønum skúfr ‘skú(g)vur, skúgving’ (da. dusk). At enda
merkir blikur bókstavliga ‘glampi, ljómi, glitur’ og sipar til hin glxsiliga
fjaðurhamin.