Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 112

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ETYMOLOGICAL NOTES
too, but only in poetic style; in ordinary
usage the meanings are ’erect; high; steep’, a
striking difference which calls for an expla-
nation. We now observe that the adjective
reystur figures in compound nouns such as
reystmenni n. ’capable man’ from ON
hraustmenni. In such compounds reyst- al-
ternates with royst-, as like as not under the
influence of Old Norse variants with hreysti-,
hence also roystmenni, cf. ON hreystimenni.
In these surroundings t was regularly lost in
pronunciation, so that where the alternative
royst- was established, it would be felt as
roys-, bringing it into association with
roysni, not a big step given the meanings,
and willy nilly with roysin also. In some
places, then, and at some time, roysin and
reystur became comfused, when the latter
took on the meanings ’erect; high; steep’
proper to the former alone.
It remains to be said that yet another total-
ly unrelated word has become involved in
these changes. This is roysningur ’walrus’,
first recorded by Svabo in the Fiskakvæði
and in his Dict. Fcer. compared with Icel.
»rostúngr«. It seems that particularly the ad-
jective roysin has been instrumental in con-
verting ON rostungr into Far. roysningur,
their relationship being reminiscent of the
pattern seen in heiðin ’heathen’ and its noun
heidningur. Our standard authorities explain
this word as ’rusty (animal)’ in allusion to
the colour, cf. de Vroes, op.cit., 452, the
name then being based on *rost ’rust’,
though there is no independent evidence for
such a term in traditional Norse where the
medieval word is ryð. Nor do our natural his-
tory books confirm that ’rusty’ would be a
likely epithet. However, V. Kiparsky,
L’histoire du morse, (Annales Academiæ
Scientarus Fennicæ, Ser. B., Vol. 73.3) has
shown that ON rostungr is ultimately due to
another Old Norse walrus name rostm- or
rosmhvalr, where rosm- is the older variant
and orginally an independent name, corrupt-
ly rendering Lappish morssa, of which it is
an anagramme (see particularly pp. 30-44
’Les formes scandinaves et leur rayonne-
ment’). The Lapps were, of course, familiar
with the animal long before the Norsemen
reached its habitat on the shores of the far
north. The name is presumed to be
onomatopoeic, reproducing the loud, bel-
lowing call.
Smæra f. ’clover’
One recognises in Far. smæra f. the typical
representative of the native Scandinavian
term for clover, cf. Icel. smæra (local: Árnes-
sýsla, otherwise smári m.), Norw. smære,
Orkney Norn smero, older Dan. smære,
Swed. dial. smáre, whereas standard Swed.
klóver, like Dan. kløver, older klever, are
borrowings from MLG klever.
S. Bugge, Paul und Braunes Beitráge xxiv,
455f., compared synonymous Irish seamar,
which he regarded as standing in ablaut rela-
tionship to the Scandinavian words, though
without going into details. We note that sea-
mar, seamair f., often as the diminutive
seamróg, the last taken into English as
shamrock, where it is generally understood
as the emblem worn on St. Patrick’s Day,
March 17th. But Bugge’s view did not meet
with the assent of others publishing in the
field, doubtless since the ablaut variation
implied is so irregular. In the following we
aim to demonstrate that the words are indeed
related, submitting that the nature of the
material does not oblige us to operate with
ablaut relationship as such. But first, we test