# Icelandic:  á undir högg að sækja



## Alxmrphi

Sælir,


Ég er að lesa ritgerð um áhrifin alþjóðavæðingar á íslenska tungu og ég las eftirfarandi setningu og ég gat ekki skilið merkinguna hennar. Það var á undir högg að sækja. Hér fyrir neðan má sjá meira samhengi til að undirstrika notkunina.



> Kvikmyndir eru gott dæmi um vettvang þar sem nýyrðasmíð_* á undir högg að sækja*_. Sem  dæmi mætti nefna nýlegar myndir eins og_ Transformers_ og_ Pirates of the Caribbean_. Nú er  höfundur af þeirri kynslóð sem lék sér með _Transformers_-fígúrur í æsku og horfði á  teiknimyndirnar, og nú, 20 árum síðar, hefur hann ekki enn heyrt íslenska þýðingu á þessum  fyrirbærum. Unglingar tala um  _Pirates of the Caribbean_, en enginn um_  Sjóræningja Karíbahafsins_. Dæmi um skemmtilega þýðingu á kvikmyndatitli er myndin  _The  Good Son_, sem á íslensku var kölluð _Fanturinn_. Íslenski titillinn tengist innihaldi  myndarinnar, í stað þess að vera bein þýðing úr ensku yfir á íslensku.



"_Films are a good example of the arena in which neologisms <á undir högg að sækja>_"

Ég er hugmyndarlaus.

Takk!
Alx


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## sindridah

Here is the meaning of the expression: Þurfa leggja á sig erfiði til þess að öðlast eitthvað, eiga eitthvað undir góðvild, náð einhvers. Actually I have no idea how to translate it properly so I'm just gonna give you some examples and see if you figure it out.

Example 1: Lets say like that Bill Clinton case with Monicu Lewis, lets pretend that it just happened and if Bill Clinton would seek to win re-election then he would have "Undir högg að sækja"

Example 2: Lets say if England are 2 goals down against Germany and 15 minutes left in the match, then England have "undir högg að sækja"

And so on... You might get a better picture of it now


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## Alxmrphi

Okay, judging by what comes after they do imply some sort of difficulty, because it says nobody talks about the film with the Icelandic name so it's a case of it sort of not catching on.


> _Films are a good example of where neologisms run into trouble.
> _


Maybe?


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## sindridah

Does this makes sense to you? Films are a good example of where neologisms is on the defensive?


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## Alxmrphi

_On the defensive_ is only really about something that is alive and can be angry/want to defend itself, so it doesn't work well in an example like this.
But I get the meaning you wanted to express


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## sindridah

Pollodia or NoMoreMrIceGuy can most likely be more helpful with the interpretation of this expression


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## Gavril

The Wisconsin dictionary translates _eiga undir högg að sækja_ as "be in a difficult position".


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## Alxmrphi

Gavril said:


> The Wisconsin dictionary translates _eiga undir högg að sækja_ as "be in a difficult position".


 I saw that about an hour ago. I had checked but only skimmed over it. Completely missed it!


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## Gavril

Alxmrphi said:


> I saw that about an hour ago. I had checked but only skimmed over it. Completely missed it!



Yeah, the Wisconsin dictionary is often better than ordabok.is when it comes to idioms/set phrases. Too bad it's only searchable one way (Icelandic -> English).


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## Alxmrphi

If you want to search Wisconsin for English you select "Entire entry" and put the English in the search field and it will pick up where English exists in all the results, and list them by the related Icelandic headword. Often with a bit of a good instinct and a bit of previous knowledge within the first few clicks you can usually arrive at the answer you're looking for (if it exists in there).


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