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