Perrérsvatn

Jóðaflóðskynslóð (babyboom generation)

A member of the so-called baby boom generation is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom between 1946 and 1964. A few weeks ago I happened to spot the wonderful Icelandic equivalent jóðaflóðskynslóð, occurring as the initial word of a Morgunblaðið article about classical music written by Ríkarður Ö. Pálsson.

Kefeifur - Kefeifungar (Cepheus - Cepheids)

The constellation of Cepheus has been alternatively called king of Ethiopia, which translates as Blálandskonungur in Icelandic (see ritmálssafn orðabókar háskólans). A serious problem arises when I needed to translate the term Cepheid (currently used icelandic term is Sefíti), denoting a member of a class of very luminous variable stars, originating from Delta Cephei in the constellation Cepheus, the first star of this type identified. The only way to avoid long, impracticle neologistic chimaeras is to create a very unenglish and distinctively Icelandic sounding adaptation of the Greek name. For a hyperpurist like me, adaptations are abominations, except when there's really, really no other choice and when the result sounds almost completely different from its cognates in the majority of the world's languages. The 'Ensk-íslensk orðabók með alfræðilegu ívafi' mentions two different spellings for 'Cepheus': When the mythological king is concerned, the spelling is 'Kefevs', but when referring to the constellation it becomes 'Sefeus'. Six years ago, when I compiled a list of not thoroughly icelandicized astronomical terms with their hypericelandic equivalents I didn't realize that this Greek name can actually be easily and sufficiently deformed to make it sound distinctively Icelandic:

1) The initial s in Sefeus (the currently used weakly icelandicized form) can be changed into 'k' because the first character of original Greek name is actually 'kappa' (Cepheus is actually the bastardized latinized form) and some languages this first character is still used: e.g. in German: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepheus_(Äthiopien) and Norwegian bokmål : http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefeus

2) The ending -eus in Greek names is mostly adapted as -eifur in Icelandic: Orfeifur (Orpheus), Seifur (Zeus), Perseifur (Perseus),The hypericelandic version of the Greek name is Kefeifur and this facilitates the creation of a term for the Cepheid variables: Kefeifsbreytistjörnur, Kefeifungar (sounds pretty uninternational in my ears, I hope in yours too!)

Compounds containing the term Cepheid:

Garnet star (Granatstjarna, red star in the constellation Cepheus): Kefeifskarbúnkull (karbúnkull (see ritmálssafn orðabókar háskólans) is an old Icelandic germanism denoting garnets but also rubies)
Classical Cepheids (also known as Population I Cepheids, Type I Cepheids, or Delta Cephei variables): Fremdarkefeifungar
Type II Cepheids (or W Virginis Cepheids from the Constellation Virgo): Meyjarkefeifungar
Dwarf Cepheids: Kefeiflingar

Samantha (personal name): Sámunda (from Sámur (Sam))
Chalons (city in France): Salúnsborg (see Íslensk orðsifjabók under 'salún')

Extremely anti-international Icelandic hyperpurisms

Nylon did not derive from the popular, but misconceived, myth that it was a joining of the names of New York (NY) and London (LON), but as a result of many committee meetings within DuPont. Many commercial names were discussed, among them Artex, Dusilk, Novasilk , NoRun and Terikon. NoRun was initially chosen, but the fibre DID run, so more work was required. From NoRun came Niron to Nyron. Then, after much deliberation, Nylon was decided upon, only 2 weeks before the product's official public launch. So what would be the best possible Icelandic word for nylon?
The etymology can't help us any further. But one thing is certain: Nylon was the first purely synthetic fiber of the Modern (Nýtískur) age . It was a paradigm shift in textile industry. For that reason, I call it nýgarn. The adjective 'nýr' is not only used to designate something brand new but also for radical changes in history. Think of the "New Deal" introduced by President Roosevelt or 'New wave music" in the early eighties, which is already old-fashioned. Nýgarn is also based on the word 'novasilk' (new silk), one of the earlier proposed names . This word was discarded because the company wanted its new synthetic fibre to conquer the market on account of all its high qualities and not just as a substitute for silk. For that reason I think 'nýgarn' (new yarn, the new fibre) is the best possible word for nylon in Icelandic. It is a short, simple, robust and flexible word.
The Latin name of cacao is "Theobroma cacao". Theobroma means 'food of the gods'. I integrated 'guð' into 'góðgæti' (delicacy).

This is an example of a bestially uninternational Icelandic neologism. Name me a non-icelandic earthling who can derive the name of this beverage from this word. I wished all Icelandic neologisms were so extraterrestrially uninternational like this one!The first element Ormur occurs as a prefix in Icelandic personal names, mostly feminine (Ormfríður, Ormheiður, Ormhildur). Ormhödd is a compound of 'Ormur' (snake) and Hödd (a feminine name meaning 'hair'), the snake-haired, MedusaThe photosphere is the thick layer around the sun's core and corresponds with the earth's mantle (jarðmöttull)An artificially made chemical element, named after Ernest Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron. The surname Lawrence originates from 'Laurentius', the original Icelandic form of which is 'Lafrans' (as in Lafransmessa). All elements after lead can be named with compounds of which the second element is 'blý'. This is a kind of positioning technique: heljarblý (Plutonium, named after the female Nordic equivalent of the male roman underworld god Pluto), Maríublý (Polonium, the radioactive second element after lead that was discovered by Marie (Maríu-) Curie), Frakkblý (Francium, named after France). Stumbling on a possibility to denominate a superheavy transuranium actinide that scientists succeeded in creating only recently and merely in picogram amounts with words from the medieval Icelandic lexical stock is an exciting experience.One day in 1996 I was wondering about what meaning could be attached to 'afn' (derived from 'efni', matter). This derivation didn't exist yet and I thought might be useful as the Icelandic equivalent for the English term 'quark'. Later I thought it might suit as a suffix in names of chemical elements. After a long time of pondering I came to the conclusion that it would be the most suitable designation of an atom. The problem with the existing 'frumeind' is that it forms three syllables in compounds, where the more robust 'atóm' remains unchanged. Atóm will always be prefered in compounds. Only a short monosyllabic word like 'afn' can replace it.
The word scores on all fronts:
1) It is monosylabic and doesn't get any longer in compounds as is the case of 'frumeind'. A more robust word is unthinkable.
2) It sounds a bit like the stem of 'ögn' (AGN), which makes it sound like a particle name.
3) It is sound-similar to 'atom' when pronounced in English while it is a purely native construction. (compare: radar -ratsjá).
4) It is derived from 'efni' (matter). An atom is the smallest particle in chemical sense (chemistry = EFNAfræði, literally 'matter-craft').
compounds:
atomic age: afnöld
atomic bomb: afnsprengja
atomic clock: afnstundsjá
atomic force microscope: afnkraftsjá atomic mass: afnmagn
atomic physics: afneðlisfræði, afnfræði
atomic theory: afnkenning atomic weight: afnþungi nucleus: afnkjarnA compound of the adjective 'nyrstur' (northernmost) and 'staður' (place) can't be found any language on this planet as a denotation of the north-pole. Virtually everywhere in the world, the compound 'north-pole is ues'. Nyrstistaður would be an extraterrestrially anti-international hyperpurism.I use 'viður' instead of 'tré', not because 'tré' isn't purely Icelandic but because I want something that sounds completely different from the English term. The first element ‘Skarjóts-‘ is an extremely icelandicized from of Iskariot. The initial – I is cut off like in the Arabic pet-form Brahim (from Ibrahim)

.The Old Icelandic name Aldeigja or Aldeigjuborg was used for the city Staraja Ladoga and the lake is sometimes refered to as Aldeigjuvatn (Íslenska Alfræðiorðabókin, see Ladogavatn). The suffix ‘-nóri’ is used in ‘hringanóri’ (ringed seal) and is, according to the Íslensk Orðsifjabók, probably derived from ‘nóra’, ‘nóri’ (particle, something small, puny), rather than from ‘nór’ (small sea-strait), which has the same origin. The ringed seal is the smallest and most common seal in the Arctic and is of the same size as its relative the Ladoga seal, so a compound with ‘-nóri’ would be appropriate to denote this subspecies too: Aldeigjunóri. This word sounds more uninternational than Ladoga seal.The compound 'lungfish' is already used in far to many languages. In Icelandic, it is possible to denote this species with a single word by combining 'froskur' and 'fiskur', thereby expessing the evolutionary place of the lungfish as an intermediate between fish (Icel. fiskur) and amphibians (Icel. froskdýr): FOSKUR. The inspiration for this word came from the term 'flish', coined by the makers of the British-Austrian documentary 'The future is wild' (2003), which explored a possible future of life on Earth. 'Flish' is composed of 'flying' and 'fish' and designates a species that evolved from flying fish to eventually replace the birds, which had gone extinct in Pangaea II, 200 million years from now.