On 10/2/06, Eysteinn Bjornsson <eysteinn@...> wrote:

> --- "llama_nom" wrote:
>
> > But I was wondering, does the idiom 'taka föng sín'
> > actually exist in the sense of "take/seize one's opportunity"?
>
> I think I can safely say absolutely not. The word is
> immediately comprehensible as "stuff", "things", "luggage",
> both in the syntactic and semantic contexts. On top of
> that, it is such a common expression that there is really
> no room for doubt.

<snip>

> But I am quite sure that "taka föng sín" can only mean one
> thing, and that is what it has meant to the Icelanders as
> far back as history reaches. But if you were to insist that
> is must mean "pick up one's means", there is not much I can
> do about it, of course ;-)

I get a bit twitchy both about statements like "this is what it means
now, and always has" and "can only mean one thing"/"no room for doubt"
:)

The first comment "Immediately comprehensible" is more significant to
me... that I grok (to use an obscure idiom :P) Also, the IF source
cinches it pretty soundly.

But now I'm all confused over the idea of "idiom"

How often do words have such different senses when they are pleural
compaired to singular? I tend to categorize those types of shifts as
idomatic... but if it's really commmon/regular I guess it wouldn't
be...

Unnr.