Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Smyrjólfsbáfjáni (Anubis Baboon)

Smyfjólfur is an Icelandic descriptive neonym to denote the Egytian jackal-god (refsbróðir or gullúlfur, hence the ending -ólfur) who was the embalming god: smyrj- + ólfur (sounds like Brynjólfur). Báfjáni is a spoonerism of fábjáni, an age-old Icelandic word, and resulted to my surprise in an eccentric but yet colourful, somewhat playful further icelandification of 'bavíani'. I was somewhat frustrted with 'bavían(i). The South African have their Bobbejaan, the English have their Baboon, which are colourful adaptations of the original Latin word Papio (Papi? rhymes on "api").
http://extremeicelandic.blogspot.com/2010/12/baboon-bafjani.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoonerism

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