Klambrar saga

Fyrri hluti

Útdráttur

This paper describes the morphological development of the feminine noun klömbur (< klombr < *klambro), from its first occurrences in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to modern times. Its basic meaning is `tightness' and it was used as a term for vice and as a place name as well. The present paper focuses on the common noun.

The declension of klömbur was the regular one for o-stems, but the fourteenth- century development of epenthetic u (klömbr > klömbur) gave rise to a new word, klömbrur (fem. plur.)
`vice(s)', first attested in the early seventeenth century. This plural noun had no singular counterpart, klambra `vice', until around 1900.

It is argued that klömbru-, as a first member in compounds, is derived from klömbrur, rather than being the gen. sing. of klambra, e.g. in klömbruhnaus, a term for a certain type of turfblock (used in wall building), first attested in the middle of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, it is argued that klambra, with the same meaning, occurs only locally after 1900 as a shortened form of klömbruhnaus.

The late appearances of klömbruhnaus and klambra are unexpected since it had been assumed that both were medieval terms.