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| Table of Contents | |
| Section | Page |
| Start of eBook | 1 |
| PART II. | 1 |
| PART III. | 1 |
| PART I. | 1 |
| PART II. | 22 |
| PART III. | 67 |
A List of Scandinavian Loanwords taken chiefly from
“The Bruce,”
“The Wallace,” Wyntoun’s
Chronicle, Dunbar, Douglas, Lyndsay,
Alexander Scott, Montgomery, Ramsay and
Burns.
1. The Dialectal Provenience of Loanwords.
2. (a) The Old Northern Vowels in the Loanwords.
Short Vowels, Long
Vowels, Diphthongs.
(b) The Old Northern Consonants.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION.
1. GENERAL REMARKS.
Worsaae’s list of 1400 place-names in England gives us an idea of the extent, as well as the distribution of Scandinavian settlements in the 9th and 10th centuries. How long Scandinavian was spoken in England we do not know, but it is probable that it began to merge into English at an early date. The result was a language largely mixed with Norse and Danish elements. These are especially prominent in the M.E. works “Ormulum,” “Cursor Mundi,” and “Havelok.” We have historical records of the Danes in Central and Eastern England. We have no such records of Scandinavian settlements in Northwestern England, but that they took place on an extensive scale 300 place-names in Cumberland and Westmoreland prove. In Southern Scotland, there are only about 100 Scandinavian place-names, which would indicate that such settlements here were on a far smaller scale than in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, or Cumberland—which inference, however, the large number of Scandinavian elements in Early Scotch seems to disprove. I have attempted to ascertain how extensive these elements are in the literature of Scotland. It is possible that the settlements were more numerous than place-names indicate, that they took place at a later date, for instance, than those in Central England. Brate showed that the general character of Scandinavian loanwords in the Ormulum is East Scandinavian. Wall concludes that it is not possible to determine the exact source of the loanwords in modern English dialects because “the dialect spoken by the Norsemen and the Danes at the time of settlement had not become sufficiently differentiated to leave any distinctive trace in the loanwords borrowed from them, or (that) neither race preponderated in any district so far as to leave any distinctive mark upon the dialect of the English peasantry.” It is true that the general character of the language of the two races was at the time very much the same, but some very definite dialectal differentiations had already taken place, and I believe the dialectal provenience of a very large number of the loanwords can be determined. Furthermore, the distribution of certain place-names indicates that certain parts were settled more especially by Danes, others by Norsemen. The larger number of loanwords in Wall’s “List A” seem to me to be Danish. My own list of loanwords bears a distinctively Norse stamp, as I shall show in Part III. of this work. This we should also expect, judging from the general character of Scandinavian place-names in Southern Scotland.
2. PLACE-NAMES AND SETTLEMENTS IN NORTHWESTERN ENGLAND.
Cumberland and Westmoreland, together covering an area equal to about two-thirds that of Yorkshire, have 300 Scandinavian place-names. Yorkshire has 407 according to Worsaae’s table. The character of these names in Cumberland and Westmoreland is different from that of those in the rest of England. It seems that these counties were settled predominantly by Norsemen and also perhaps at a later date than that which we accept for the settlements in York and Lincolnshire. We know that as early as 795 Norse vikings began their visits to Ireland; that they settled and occupied the Western Isles about that time; that in 825 the Faroes were first colonized by Norsemen, partly from the Isles. After 870 Iceland was settled by Norsemen from Norway, but in part also from the Western Isles and Ireland. The ‘Austmen’ in Ireland, especially Dublin, seem frequently to have visited the opposite shore. It seems probable that Northwestern England was settled chiefly by Norsemen from Ireland, Man, and the Isles on the west. It is not likely that any settlements took place before 900. It seems more probable that they belong rather to the second quarter of the 10th Century or even later, when the Irish began successfully to assert themselves against the Norse kings in Dublin and Waterford. Perhaps some may have taken place even as late as the end of the 10th Century.
3. SCANDINAVIAN SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTHERN SCOTLAND.
In Southern Scotland, Dumfriesshire, Eastern Kircudbright and Western Roxburgh seem to have formed the center of Scandinavian settlements; so, at any rate, the larger number of place-names would indicate. The dialect spoken here is in many respects very similar to that of Northwestern England, D. 31 in Ellis, and the general character of the place-names is the same. These are, however, far fewer than in Northwestern England. Worsaae gives a list of about 30. This list is not exhaustive. From additional sources, rather incomplete, I have been able to add about 80 more Scandinavian place-names that occur in Southern Scotland, most of them of the same general character as those in Northwestern England. Among them: Applegarth, Cogarth, Auldgirth, Hartsgarth, Dalsgairth, Tundergarth, Stonegarthside, Helbeck, Thornythwaite, Twathwaite, Robiethwaite, Murraythwaite, Lockerby, Alby, Denbie, Middlebie, Dunnabie, Wysebie, Perceby, Newby, Milby, Warmanbie, Sorbie, Canoby, Begbie, Sterby, Crosby, Bushby, Magby, Pockby, Humbie, Begbie, Dinlaybyre, Maybole, Carnbo, Gateside, Glenholm, Broomholm, Twynholm, Yetholm, Smailholm, Langholm, Cogar, Prestwick, Fenwick, Howgate, Bowland, Arbigland, Berwick, Southwick, Corstorphine, Rowantree, Eggerness, Southerness, Boness, etc. There are in all about 110 such place-names, with a number of others that may be either English or Scandinavian. The number of Scandinavian elements in Southern Scotch is, however, very great and indicates larger settlements
4. SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND, NORSE OR DANISH? THE PLACE-NAME TEST.
That the Danes were more numerous than the Norsemen in Central and Eastern England from Northumberland down to the Thames there can be no doubt. The distinctive Norse names fell, tarn and force do not occur at all, while thorpe and toft, which are as distinctively Danish, are confined almost exclusively to this section. In Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire thorpe is comparatively rare, while toft is not found at all. On the other hand, fell, dale, force, haugh, and tarn (O.N. fjall, dalr, foss and fors, haugr, tjoern) occur in large numbers in Northwestern England. Beck may be either Danish or Norse, occurs, however, chiefly in the North. Thwaite Worsaae regarded as Danish “because it occurs generally along with the Danish by.” We find, however, that this is not exactly the case. In Lincolnshire there are 212 by’s, in Leicestershire 66, in Northampton 26; thwaite does not occur at all. In Yorkshire there are 167 names in by and only 8 in thwaite, and 6 of these are in West Riding. It is only
5. BY IN PLACE-NAMES. CONCLUSIONS AS TO THIS TEST.
By has been regarded as a sign of Danish settlement for the following reasons: (1) O.N. boer would have given bo. The O. Dan. form byr becomes by. (2) By is peculiar to Denmark, rare in Norway. (3) Boe or bo is the form found in Insular Scotland, in the Faroes and other Norse settlements. First, the form b[`y]r is not exclusively O. Dan. It occurs several times in Old Norse sagas in the form byr and by—in “Flateyarbok,” III., 290, in “Fagrskinna” 41, several times in the “Heimskringla,” as well as elsewhere. Again, J. Vibe (see Nordisk Tidskrift, 1884, 535, and Norsk Historisk Tidskrift, 2 Raekke, 5 Bind), has shown that by is not peculiar to Denmark and rare in Norway. It occurs 600-700 times in Denmark and Skane, and 450 times in Norway. Finally, by is often found in Norse settlements in Scotland and elsewhere—in Iceland, Shetland, Orkney, Man, and in the Western Isles. In fact, by seems to be the more common form outside of Iceland. All we can say then is that by is more Danish than Norse, but may also be Norse. Where names in by are numerous it indicates that the settlements are rather Danish, but they may also be Norse. We have, then, the following results: Predominantly Danish settlements: Essex, Bedford, Buckingham, Suffolk, Norfolk, Northampton, Leicester, Rutland, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, East Riding. Mixed Norse and Danish settlements: North Riding, West Riding, Durham, part of Cheshire, and Southern Lancashire. Norse settlements: Cumberland, Westmoreland, North Lancashire, part of Cheshire, and parts of Northumberland. The number of Scandinavian place-names in Northumberland is not large, only 22 in Worsaae’s list. North of the Cheviot Hills the names are again predominantly Norse.
6. CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD NORTHERN,
OR OLD SCANDINAVIAN.
EARLY DIALECTAL
DIFFERENTIATION.
On the characteristics of primitive Northern and the changes that had taken place in the language before the Viking period, see Noreen, P.G.(2)I, 521-526. On pp. 523-526 are summarized the characteristics of General Northern. Until 800 the Northern tongue was unitary throughout the Scandinavian North. In the Viking age dialectal differentiations began to appear, especially in O. Dan. These are as follows (from Noreen):
About 800, older hr > r
in Denmark.
Soon after 800, older diphthongs became
simplified in Denmark,
e.g.,
au > u cp.
O. Ic. þau, O.Gutnic þaun = O. Dan. þusi
pronounced þosi.
ai, ei > i
cp. O. Ic. stein, O.N. staein, O.Gtnc.
stain =
O. Dan. stin.
io, iau > u
cp. O.N., O. Ic. briote, O.Gtnc.
briauti
= O. Dan. biruti.
Before 1000, [-e] > ae cp.
O.N., O. Ic. ser = O. Dan. saer
(written sar).
About 1,000, appears in O. Sw.—O.
Dan. an excrescent d between
nn and r, e.g.,
mantr, pronounced mandr (see Noreen,
p. 526).
7. OLD NORSE AND OLD DANISH.
Not until the year 1,000, or the beginning of the 11th Century, do dialectal differentiations seem to be fully developed. O.N., which in general preserves best the characteristics of the old Northern speech, undergoes at this time a few changes that differentiate Dan. and Norse still more. O. Sw. remains throughout closer to O. Dan. The two together are therefore called East Scandinavian. Old Icelandic, that is, Norse on Icelandic soil, develops its own forms, remaining, however, in the main very similar to O.N. These two are then called West Scandinavian. The following are some of the chief differences between West and East Scandinavian at the time (from Noreen, P.G.(2)I, 527):
1. I—(R) and
U—Umlaut in W.S. Absence
of it in E.S.,
e.g.,
W.S. haeldr
E.S. halder.
3 sg. pres. of
halda, “to hold.”
W.S. i gaer, “yesterday,”
E.S. i gar.
W.S. l[o,]nd, pl. “land,”
E.S. land.
2. Development of i, e,
y into a consonantal i in
diphthongs in W. S., not so
in E. S., e.g.,
W.S. sia, “to see,” E.S. s[-e]a. W.S. fiande, “enemy,” E.S. fiande. W.S. biar, “of a village,” E.S. byar.
3. Assimilation of mp, nk,
nt, respectively, to pp, kk,
tt in W.S., retention
of them in E.S., e.g.,
W.S. kroppen, “crippled,”
E.S. krumpin.
W.S. aekkia, “widow,”
E.S. ankia.
W.S. batt, “bound,”
E.S. binda.
pret. of binda,
4. The Medio-passive:
W.S. sk, e.g., kallask, E.S. s, kallas.
5. Pronominal forms:
W.S. ek, ver (mer), E.S. iak, v[-i]r, er (þer), sem, [-i]r, sum.
8. REMARKS.
Assimilation of mp to pp and nk to kk appears also quite early in Danish and Swedish, e.g., kap (kapp) and drocken (see Kalkar), kapp and drokken (Sw.). U—Umlaut seems to be more limited in O.N. than in O. Ic. O. Ic. hl, hn, hr initially appear early as simple l, n, r in O.N. (see Noreen 528), e.g., O. Ic. hlaupa, O.N. loupa; O. Ic. hniga,
9. CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD NORTHUMBRIAN.
The following are some of the chief differences between O. Nhb. and W. S:
1. Preference in O. Nhb. for a in many cases where W. S. has e.
2. A sometimes appears in closed syllable where W.S. has ae.
3. A before l + consonant
is not broken to ea (Sievers
Sec.121.3, and Lindeloef: Die Sprache
des Durham Rituals).
4. A before r + consonant
very frequently not broken, cp.
arm, farra. Breaking
occurs more often, however.
5. E before l + consonant
not broken in the Ritual (see
Lindeloef).
6. E before r + consonant
is broken and appears as either ea
or eo, cp. eorthe, earthe.
7. A before h, ht, x (hs) becomes oeae. Sievers Sec.162.1. In W.S. a was broken to oeea, cp. O. Nhb. sax, W.S. seax. This Lindeloef explains as due to the different quality of the h—in W.S. it was guttural, hence caused breaking; in Nhb. it was palatal and hence the preceding a was palatalized to oeae.
8. Nhb. umlaut of o is oe[oe]. In W. S. it was e, cp. doe[oe]ma, soe[oe]ca, W. S. d[-e]man, s[-e]can. See Sievers Sec.Sec.27 and 150.4. Bouterwek CXXVII, and Lindeloef. This difference was, however, levelled out, Nhb. oe[oe] becoming also e, according to Sievers.
9. Special Nhb. diphthongs ei,
ai, cp. heista, seista,
W.S. hiehsta, siexta.
10. Influence of preceding w was greater than in the South. A diphthong whose second element was a dark vowel was simplified generally to a dark vowel (Lindeloef), e.g., weo > wo, wio > wu, cp. weorld > world, weord > word, etc.
11. W.S. t is represented
quite frequently by eth or d,
regularly so when combined with l,
often so when combined with
s. See Lindeloef above.
12. W.S. eth frequently appears
as d in the North; the reverse
also occurs. See Bouterwek CXLII-CXLV.
In a few cases eth > t.
13. C before t where W. S. regularly has h. See Bouterwek.
14. Metathesis of r less extensive than in W. S.
15. Preceding g, c,
sc did not cause diphthongation in Nhb.
as often as in W. S.
16. Generally speaking, less extensive
palatalization in Nhb. than
in W. S.
17. Dropping of final n in infinitives in Northumbrian.
10. REMARKS. METATHESIS OF R.
The above characteristics of O. Nhb. will not only explain a great many later Scotch forms, but also show that a number of words which have been considered loanwords are genuine English. Sco. daw, “day,” need not necessarily be traced to O.N. dagr. The W.S. daeg gave Eng. day. Daeg is also the Northern form. Daw may of course be due to a in the oblique cases, but according to 2 dag may have appeared in the nominative case early in the North. This would develop to daw. Sco. daw, verb, “to dawn,” is easily explained. W.S. dagian > dawn regularly, Nhb. dagia (see 17 above) > daw. The O.N. daga, “to dawn,” is then out of the question. Sco. mauch, “a kinsman”; the O.E. form was maeg, which would have given may. In the North the g was probably not palatal. Furthermore a Northern form mag would regularly develop to maw, might also be mauch (cp. law and lawch, adj., “low,” O.N. lagr). O.N. magr, “kinsman,” may, however, be the source of mauch. Sco. hals is not from O.N. hals, but from O. Nhb. hals which corresponded to W. S. heals; Sco. hawse, “to clasp,” (Ramsay, II, 257); comes from O. Nhb. halsiga, W. S. healsian. (Sco. hailse, “to greet,” is a different word, see loanword list, part II.). Forms that appear later in standard English frequently are found earliest in the North (cp. Sec.10). No. 13 explains some differences in the later pronunciation of Sco. and Eng. No. 12 is a characteristic that is much more common in Middle and Early New Scotch. Many words in this way became identical in form with their Norse cognates, cp. broder, fad(d)er, etc. This will be discussed later. No. 14, Metathesis of r, was carried out extensively in W. S. (see Sievers, 179), e.g., beornan “burn”; iernan, “run”; burn, “a stream”; hors, “horse”; forsk, “frog”; þerscan, “to thrash”; berstan, “to burst”; fierst, “a space of time,” (cp. Norse frist, Germ. Frist). This progressive metathesis of r is very common in the South. In the
11. THE QUESTION OF PALATALIZATION IN O. Nhb.
Just to what extent g, c, sc were palatalized in O. Nhb. is not definitely known. Until this has been ascertained the origin of a number of dialect words in the North will remain uncertain. The palatal character of g, c, sc in O.E. was frequently represented by inserting a palatal vowel, generally e, before the following guttural vowel. Kluge shows (in Litteraturblatt fuer germ, und rom. Philologie, 1887, 113-114) that the Middle English pronunciation of crin[vg]en, sin[vg]en, proves early palatalization, which was, however, not indicated in the writing of the O.E. words cringan, singan. And in the same way palatalization existed in a great many words where it was not graphically represented. Initial sc was always palatalized (Kluge, 114 above). In the MSS. k seems to represent a guttural, c a palatal sound of older c (Sievers, 207, 2). Palatalization of c is quite general. K became palatalized to c in primitive Eng. initially before front vowels, also before Gmc. e and eu (Kluge, P.G.(2)I, 991). Kluge accepts gutturalizing of a palatal c before a consonant where this position is the result of syncopation of a palatal vowel. In the South palatal c became a fricative ch. According to Kluge it never developed to ch in Northern England and Scotland, but either remained
12. SK AS A SCANDINAVIAN SIGN.
CERTAIN WORDS IN SK.
PALATALIZATION
IN NORSE.
Wall argues that non-palatalization cannot be regarded as a sign of Scand. influence and cites a number of words in support of this conclusion (see Wall, Sec.30). With regard to dick, “ditch,” and sag, “sedge,” Wall is probably right. Those in sk are, however, not so easily disposed of. The presence of certain words with sk in the South or those cited in sh in the North does not prove the case. While the presence of a word in South Eng. diall. is in favor of its genuine Eng. origin, it does not prove it, for certain words, undoubtedly Scand., are found in the Southern dialects. Shag, “rough hair,” Skeat regards as Norse rather than Eng. Scaggy, “shaggy,” with initial sk, I would regard as Norse from O.N. skegg, not from O.E. sceagga. Shriek Skeat regards as Scand. Bradley derives it from O.L.G. scricon which is found once in the Heliand. Eng. dial. skrike. Wall on the other hand derives it from O.E. scricon, since scric is found. Scric occurs in O.E. as the name of the shriekbird. The vb. is not found. Whether we regard “shriek” native or not, scrike is to be derived from O.N. skrika. Skeer is from O.N. skera; sheer from O.E. sceran. In form if not in meaning, we have an exact parallel in the M.E. skir, “bright,” from O.N. skir, and schir from O.E. scir. In a few cases words that seem Scand. appear with sh, not sk. The etymology of such words, however, becomes rather doubtful. This is especially the case where in the Norse word a guttural vowel followed the sk. Where, however, the Norse or Dan. word had a palatal vowel after the sk the change to sh is not at all impossible, and here arises the question of palatalization in O.N. O.N. skiol, pron. sk-iol, with sk, = Norse skj[-u]l (pron. sh[-u]l). Ski thus becomes sh in O.N. skilinn, Norse shil, O.N. skilja, Norse shilja (or skille), O.N. skipta,
13. CONCLUSION AS TO THE TEST OF NON-PALATALIZATION.
As initial sk, corresponding to O.N. sk, O.E. sc, is due to Scand. influence, so, in general, medial and final sk may be also so regarded: cp. here Sco. harsk, “harsh,” bask (adj.), mensk, forjeskit, etc. The guttural character of g and k in Sco. is not to be regarded as due to Scand. influence. Thus mirk, reek, steek, streek, breek, dik, rike, sark, kirn, lig, brig, rig, etc., are to be derived from the corresponding O. Nhb. words, not from O.N. There is something of uncertainty in these words, however, as they all could come from the O.N. O.N. hryggr, for instance, would become rig in Sco., just as would O. Nhb. rycg (rygg). O.N. bryggia would become brig, just as well as O. Nhb. brycg (brygg). The i after g in bryggia does not hinder this, since, as we know, the O.N. word was pronounced brygg-ia, not bryddja, as a later form would be.
14. OLD AND MIDDLE SCOTCH.
After Chaucer, Northumbrian English became a mere popular dialect no longer represented in literature. But the form of Northumbrian spoken north of the Tweed, Lowland Scotch, has during the next three hundred years quite a different history. From the Scottish war of Independence to the Union of the Crowns, Scotland had its own literary language. It is customary to speak of three periods of Scottish language and literature as Old, Middle and New: Old Scotch extending down to about 1450; Middle Scotch to the Union of the Crowns; and New Scotch covering the period after the Union. This is, of course, simply a Northern and later form of the Northumbrian we have discussed above.
15. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF SCOTCH. O.E. [)A], [-A].
There are no monuments in O.Sco. dating back to the 13th or first half of the 14th Century. The first of any importance that we have is “The Bruce” of 1375. By this time the language of Scotland had already undergone many changes that made its general character quite different from literary or Midland English. None of these changes tended so much to differentiate the two as the very different development of O.E. long and short a. In the south O.E. a > [-e] (name > n[-e,]m > n[-e]m); but O.E. [-a] > [-o,], later [-o] (st[-a]n > st[-o,]n > st[-o]ne, h[-a]m > h[-o,]m > h[-o]me). The change of [-a] to [-o,] (probably about 1200) took place before that of [)a] to [-a], else they would have coincided and both developed to [-o] or [-e]. The last is precisely what took place in Scotland. O. Nhb. [)a] > [-a] and early coincided with original [-a], and along with it developed to later [-e], as only short a did in the south. The two appear together in rhyme in Barbour. Their graphic representation is a, ai, ay. The sound in Barbour is probably [-ae] or [-e,]. In “Wallace” Fr. entre is also written entray, entra. Fr. a and ei and Eng. diphthong ai (< aeg) rhyme regularly with Sco. a, ay, ai, from O.E. [-a]. On O.E. and O.N. [-a]- and M. Sco. [-e]-sounds in general see Curtis, Sec.Sec.1-165.
16. CURTIS’S TABLE.
The following (see Curtis Sec.Sec.144-145) illustrates the development of O.E. [)a], and [-a], in England and Scotland:
1. Central Scotland. {O.E.
[)a]}
{ } > an [-e]-vowel.
{O.E. [-a]}
2. S. Scotland and {O.E. [)a]}
Ellis’s D. 31* { } > [-e] > an i-
in England. { } fracture in
{O.E. [-a]} the mdn. diall.
{
> an [-e]-vowel.
3. The rest of Northern { O.E. [)a]
{ > [-e], later
England and Midland. { { [-i]-fracture
in
{ { D 25,
26, 28, 29.
{
{ O.E. [-a] > [-o]
or [-u],
with
fracture.
4. Southern England { O.E.
[)a] > an e-fracture or
{ i-fracture.
{ O.E. [-a] > [-u]
or [-o].
[Footnote: Ellis’s D 31 = N. W. Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland and N. Lancashire.]
In 1. O.E. h[-a]m > h[-e]m, n[)a]me > n[-e]m.
In 2. h[-a]m > h[-e]m
> hi[schwa]m, n[)a]me > n[-e]m
>
ni[schwa]m.
In 3. h[-a]m > h[-o]m,
ho[schwa]m, ho^{u}m or h[-u]m
with
fracture.
n[)a]me > n[-e]m.
n[)a]me > n[-e]m > ni[schwa]m
in certain dialects.
In 4. h[-a]m > h[-u]m, or
hom.
n[)a]me
> ne[schwa]m, ni[schwa]m.
The intermediate stage of this development, however,
is explained
in two ways. According to Curtis it was (in 2)
[-a] > [-e,] >
[-e] > [-i] > i[schwa].
Luik (Sec.244) shows that
das Vorruecken zum Vocalextrem ist an
die Abstumpfung gebunden;
wir finden es nur dort, wo auch Abstumpfung
zu constatieren
ist, waebrend diese selbst ein weiteres
Gebiet hat. Schon
daraus folgt, dass die Abstumpfung das
Primaere ist, dass also
ihre Basis e war, nicht i.
Dies wird bestaetigt
durch eine einfache Erwaegung. Haette
die Abstumpfung die
Lautstufe i ergriffen, so haette
sie auch das e
treffen muessen, das ja schon seit Beginn
der neuenglischen
Zeit in allen Dialekten durch i
vertreten ist. Endlich
bieten die fruehesten Zeugnisse nur e,
nicht i,
auch fuer solche Striche, die heute i
haben.
According to this, then, the development is more probably
[)-a] >
[-e,] > [-e][schwa] > i[schwa], or, as Luik thinks,
[)-a] >
ae > ae[schwa], or [-e,][schwa]
> [-e][schwa] > i[schwa].
17. O.E. [-O].—A
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIVE WORDS
FROM THE ABERDEEN
DIALECT.
Another Northern peculiarity relates to O.E. [-o]. While in the south O.E. [-o] developed to an [-u]-vowel or an [-u]- fracture, in Scotland it became ee (ui, ee, i). The process involved here does not yet seem to be fully understood. The modern dialect of Aberdeen is most pronounced in this respect, older i also frequently becoming u, o. The following examples taken from “Johnnie Gibb” (Aberdeen. 1871) will illustrate:
1. Words with an u (o)-vowel in English that have i in Aberdeen dialect: ither, “other”; mither, “mother”; tribble (O. Fr. troble), “trouble”; kwintra (O. Fr. contree), “country”; dis, “does” (3. s. of “do"); hiz, “us”; dizzen (O. Fr. dozaine), “dozen”; sipper (O. Fr. soper), “supper.” Here we may also include, pit, “to put”; fit, “foot.” Buik, “book,” seems to show the intermediate stage, cp. also tyeuk, “took.” On the other hand O.E. broether > breeder; (ge)_-don_ > deen; judge (O. Fr. juger) > jeedge, all of which have a short vowel in English recent speech.
2. Words with [)i] in Eng.Page 14
that have [)u] in Aberdeen dialect: full, “to fill”; spull, “to spill”; buzness (cp. O.E. b[-y]sig), “business”; wutness, “witness”; wull, “will” (vb.); wunna, “will not”; wutty, “witty”; chucken, “chicken”; fusky (Gael. usquebah), “whiskey”; sun, “sin.”
3. Words with [-o][-o] (or iu) in Eng. have ee ([-i]) in Aberdeen dialect: seer (O. Fr. sur), “sure”; seen, “soon”; refeese (O. Fr. refuser), “refuse”; peer (O. Fr. poure), “poor”; yeel (M.E. [*g]ole), “yule”; reed (O.E. r[-o]d), “rood”; eese (O. Fr. us), “use”; shee (O.E. sc[-e]o), “shoe”; adee, “ado”; tee, “too”; aifterneen, “afternoon”; skweel, “school”; reet (O.E. r[-o]t), “root”; constiteetion, “constitution.” Cp. also gweed (O.E. g[-o]d), “good.” The w in gweed, skweel, shows again the process of change from o to ee. U in buik and w in kwintra also seem to represent the u-element that is left in the sound. In words like refeese, keerious, etc., where ee is from Fr. u, the sound is quite easily explained. So fusky from usquebah. Full, from O.E. fyllan, and buzness are interesting.
18. INORGANIC Y IN SCOTCH.
Many words have developed a y where originally there was none. This phenomenon is, however, closely connected with e-i-fracture from original [)-a]. Y we find appears often before a (from original [)-a]). It is, then, simply the development of the e-i-fracture into a consonant + a, and may be represented thus: O.E. [-a]c ("oak”) > [-e,]c > [-e]c > [-e][schwa]c > i[schwa]c > yak. (See also Murray D.S.C.S., 105). Cp. yance and yence, “once”; yell, “ale”; yak, “ache.” This also appears in connection with fracture other than that from O.E. [-a]: cp. yirth, yird, for “earth.”
19. D FOR THE SPIRANT TH.
This appears in a number of words: e.g., ledder, “leather”; fader (in Gau), fadder, “father”; moder, mudder, “mother”; broder, brudder, “brother”; lidder (A.S. liethre); de (Gau), “the” (article); widdie (O.E. wiethig), “withy”; dead, “death”; ferde, “fourth”; etc. In some works this tendency is quite general. Norse loanwords as a rule keep the spirant, but in the following loanwords eth has become d: cleed, cleeding, “clothe, clothing,” from O.N. klaeetha; red,
20. O.E. [-A] AND O.N. AEI.
HOW FAR WE CAN DETERMINE
SUCH
WORDS TO BE OF NATIVE OR OF NORSE ORIGIN.
Certain Eng. dialect words in [-e] corresponding to O.E. [-a] have been considered Scand. loanwords. We have, however, seen that in the north O.E. [-a] > [-e] just as did O.N. aei (ei). How many of these words are genuine English and how many are loanwords becomes, then, rather uncertain. Wall argues that the Norse words were always in M.E. spelled with a diphthong, while the genuine English words were spelled with an a—thus bain, baisk from O.N. baeinn, baeiskr, but hame, stane, hale from O.E. h[-a]m, st[-a]n, h[-a]l. If this were always the case we should have here a safe test. It is, however, a fact that in Scottish texts at least, no such consistency exists with regards to these words. The following variant spellings will show this: hame, haim, haym; stain, stane, stayne; hal, hale, hail, hayle; lak, lake, laik, layk; blake, blaik, blayk, etc., etc. There is, however, another way in which to determine which of such words are loanwords and which are not. In Southern Scotland in D. 33, and in Northwestern England (D. 31), O.N. aei and O.E. [-a] did not coincide, but have been kept distinct down to the present time (see Ellis’s word-lists and Luik, 220, 221). In these two dialects O.E. [-a] developed to an i-fracture (see Sec.16.2), while O.N. aei never went beyond the e-stage, and remains an e-vowel in the modern dialects. Here, then, we have a perfectly safe test for a large number of words. Those that have in D. 31 and D. 33 an i-vowel or an i-fracture are genuine English, those that have an e-vowel
Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects, by J.R. Smith. London. 1839.
A Glossary of Words and Phrases of Cumberland,
by William
Dickinson. London. 1859.
Folk Speech of Cumberland, by Alexander
Craig Gibson. London.
1873.
A Glossary of Words used in Swaledale,
Yorkshire, by John Harand.
E.D.S. 1873.
Whitby Glossary, by F.K. Robinson. E.D.S. 1876.
21. A LIST OF SOME WORDS THAT ARE NORSE. FURTHER REMARKS.
These all aim at giving the phonetic value of the sounds. O.E., O.N. [-a] is represented by ea or eea, indicating i-fracture. For instance: heam, steean, neam, geat, beeath, leath (O.N. laethi), heeal, brea (O.N. br[-a]), breead (O.E. br[-a]d, not O.N. braei), greeay, blea, etc. Those that have a, ai, or ay, that is an e-vowel, and must consequently be derived from the corresponding O.N. words, are the following:
BLAKE, adj. yellow,
pale, O.N. blaeikr.
BLAKEN, vb. to turn
yellow, N.N. blaeikna.
CLAME, vb. to adhere,
O.N. klaeima.
CLAM, adj. slimy, deriv.
CLAMING, sb. adhesive
material, deriv.
FLAY, vb. to frighten,
O.N. fleya.
FLAYTLY, adv. timidly,
deriv.
HAIN, vb. to save,
protect, O.N. hegna.
LAKE, LAIKE, vb. to
play, O.N. laeika, cp. O.E. l[-a]can.
LAKEING, sb. a toy,
deriv.
LAVE, sb. the remainder,
O.N. laeifr, cp. O.E. l[-a]f.
RATE, vb. to bleach,
whiten, O.N. r[-o]yta. M.L.G. roten,
is out of the
question, and *_reeat_ would be the form
corresponding
to M.L.G. raten.
SLAKE, vb. to smear,
In addition to these, blain, “to become white,” is a Scand. loan-word, but rather from Dan. blegne than Norse blaeikna, cp. blake above. Blained, adj. “half dry,” said of linen hung out to dry, is, of course, simply the pp. of blain, cp. Dan. blegned. Skaif, “distant, wild, scattered abroad, or apt to be dispersed” (is the definition given), corresponds exactly to O.N. skaeif in form, but not in meaning. Skaeif meant “crooked.” Sco. daive, “to stun, stupefy,” is here regularly spelled deeave (deave in Swaledale). It must, then, be derived from O.E. deafian, not O.N. doeyfa, O. Ic. deyfa. Swaledale slaiching, “sneaking,” is the same as O.N. slaeikja, “to lick”; a secondary meaning of O.N. slaeikja is “to sneak”; keeal, “kail,” could come from O.N. kal or Gael. cal. It is probably from the latter. The word slaister, “to dawdle, to waste one’s time,” is not clear. The sb. slaisterer, “a slink, an untidy person,” is also found. The ai indicates an original diphthong. It is probably the same as Norse sloeysa, sb. “an untidy person,” as vb. “to be untidy, to be careless.” Ster (slais + ster) would, then, be an Eng. suffix, or it may be the same as that in Sco. camstary, cp. Germ. halsstarrig. The Norse word sloeysa is probably not the direct source of the Eng. dialect word. Slaister, however, for sloeysa, seems to be a recent word in Norse. Skane, “to cut the shell fish out of the shell” (Wall, list B), is to be derived from O.N. skaeina, rather than from O.E. scaenan. Slade, “breadth of greensward in plowed land,” cannot be from O.N. slettr, “plain,” sletta, “a plain.” Neither form nor meaning quite correspond. The Sw. slaegd corresponds perfectly in form but not in meaning. It is, however, probably from O.E. slaed. This word is taken from Wall’s list, not from the works named above.
22. CELTIC, LOWLAND SCOTCH, AND NORSE.
In Gaelic and Irish, in the Western Isles and the Highlands, considerable Norse elements are found as the result of Norse occupancy that continued in the Isles, at least, for several hundred years. A number of words that have come into Gaelic and Irish from Norse are also found in Lowland Scotch. In some cases it seems that the word has not come into Lowland Scotch direct from Norse, but by way of Gaelic or Irish. Craigie has given a list of about 200 words in Gaelic that seem to come from Norse. Out of these I will take a few that have corresponding words in Scotch:
GAELIC OR IRISH. LOWLAND SCOTCH. OLD NORSE. gardha garth garethr lobht loft loft prine prin prjonn stop stoup staup sgeap skep skeppa sainseal hansell handsal gaort girt, girth gioereth cnapp, cneap knap knappr maol mull muli sgeir sker sker scarbh scarth scarfr gead ged, gedde gedda scat scait skata brod brod broddr masg mask Dan. maske rannsaich ransack, runsick rannsaka
Garth and loft agree perfectly with the O.N. and are not doubtful. With the Gael. gardh cp. O.N. garethr and O. Sw. gardher. The Sco. garth has changed the original voiced spirant to a voiceless one. In Gael. lobht f has become v. Prin is rather doubtful. There is an O.E. pr[-e]on from which the Gael. word may have come. The Sco. word prin does not seem to come from either O.E. pr[-e]on or O.N. prjonn, but from the Gael. prine. There is a Northern dialectic pr[-e]on which may come from O.E. pr[-e]on. There is also a pren in Dan. dial. Stoup has the Norse diphthong which has been simplified in Gael. stop. Skep is a little doubtful because of meaning. The loanword sgeap in Gael. has the specialized meaning of “a beehive.” This meaning the Sco. word has very frequently, the Norse to my knowledge never. It may be a case of borrowed meaning from Gael. Girth is from the Norse. Girt is probably simply change of th to t, which is also found elsewhere in Sco. Knap may be from either. Mull in Sco. may be native English. The word occurs in L.G. Sker is from O.N. Skarth is anomalous, showing change of f to th. In the Gael. scarbh, f is changed to v as in lobht. Ged is nearer the O.N. Scait could be from either, as also brod. Sco. mask is probably not at all a loanword, and may be from older mex by metathesis of s; cp. O.E. mexfat and Sco. maskfat cited by Skeat, Et. Dict. The Gael. masg is probably not a loanword from the Scand., but from O.E., or perhaps from O.Sco. An O. Nhb. mesk probably existed. Ransack agrees with the Norse word. The spelling runsick found once (Wallace VII, 120), probably does not represent the exact sound, and is, in any case, as ransack to be derived from the O.N. and not through the Gael. Faid, “a company of hunters,” has already once been referred to. This cannot possibly come from the O.N. vaeiethr, for while the spirant
23. SOME WORDS THAT ARE NOT SCANDINAVIAN LOANWORDS.
We have spoken in Sec.Sec.10, 13, 20 and 22, of a number of words that are to be considered regular Sco. developments of O.E. words. The following words have also generally been derived from the Scand., but must be considered native, or from sources other than Norse:
BLAIT, adj. backward,
must be traced to O.E. bl[-e]at,
rather than to
O.N. blout. O.N. ou, au is
always ou
or oi in
Sco.
BREID, sb. breadth,
not Norse braeidde nor Dan. bredde,
but native Eng.
CUMMER, sb. misery,
wail, seems uncertain. It corresponds in
form and usage
exactly to Norse kummer, but mb > mm
is
natural and occurs
elsewhere in Sco., cp. slummer,
“slumber,”
which need not be derived from Norse slummer
or
any L.G. word.
The usage of the word is peculiarly Scand.
DEAD, sb. death. Not Dan.-Norse doed, but English “death.”
FALD, vb. to fall.
Skeat says the d is due to Scand.
influence, but
cp. boldin from bolna (older bolgna).
So
d after
l in fald may be genuine. Besides
the O.N. word
is falla,
later Dan. falde.
FERDE, ordinal of four, not Norse fjerde. See Sec.19.
FLATLYNGIS, adv. flatly,
headlong, looks very much like Norse
flatlengs
and corresponds perfectly in meaning. The Norse
word is, however,
a late formation, apparently, and _-lyngs_
is a very common
adverbial ending in Sco.
HAP, vb. to cover up,
to wrap up, cannot come from O. Sw.
hypia,
as y could not become a.
LEDDER, sb. leather.
Not from Dan. leder, for cp. Sec.19;
besides the vowel
in the Dan. word is long.
MISTER, sb. and vb.
need, from O. Fr. mestier, not from
O.N. miste,
which always means “to lose,” as it does
in the
modern diall.
The O. Fr. mestier meant “office, trade,”
and
sometimes “need.”
The last is the meaning of the modern
metier
in the dialects of Normandy. Both meanings exist
in
Northern English.
OUKE, sb. week.
In all probability from O.E. wucu by loss of
initial w
before u. The Dan. uge does not
quite
correspond.
The O.N. vika even less. The Danish uge
simply
shows similar
dropping of w (v) as the Sco. word.
RIGBANE, sb. backbone.
Both elements are Eng. The compound
finds a parallel
in Norse rygbaein.
SOOM, vb. to swim.
Not Dan. soemme, but loss of w before
oo, cp.
the two Norse forms svoemma and symma.
Cp.
soote,
the last word in the first line of the Prologue to
Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales.
TEEM, vb. to empty.
It is not necessary to derive this from
Norse toemme,
“to empty.” There is an O.E. t[-o]m
from
which the Sco.
adj. toom probably comes. Toom is also
a
verb in Sco. Teem
is simply this same word by characteristic
Sco. change of
o to e. (See Sec.17.) This also explains
the
length of the
vowel.
TRAK, vb. to pull,
not necessarily Norse trekka, cp. the
L.G. trekken.
WID, sb. wood.
Not O.N. viethr nor Dan. ved. The
vowel is
against it in
both cases. But just as above toom becomes
teem, so
wood > wid, cp. Sco. guid,
“good,” pit,
“put,”
etc. (See Sec.17.) Hence also the shortness of
the vowel
in wid.
WERE, sb. spring, cp.
Latin ver. Var, vaar in Scand.
does not account
for the e in the Sco. word.
YIRD, sb. earth. Not from Dan. jord. See next word.
YIRTH, sb. earth, an
inorganic y (see Sec.18). Not from O.N.
joereth.
For d in yird see Sec.19.
24. LOANWORD TESTS.
I have adopted the following tests of form, meaning and distribution in determining the Scand. source of loanwords:
1. The diphthong ou, ow corresponding to O.N. ou, O.E. ea.
2. Ai, ay corresponding
to O.N. aei, O.E. [-a] as far as
such words can be determined from modern
dialects according to
Sec.20.
3. The spirant th corresponding to O.N. eth, and O.E. d.
4. Consonantal assimilation of nk
to kk, mb to bb, mp to
pp, ethl to ll, zd
and rd to dd, corresponding to
similar assimilation in Scand.
5. Other consonantal and inflexional
forms that are Scand., as
opposed to O. Nhb. d for Scand.
d, O.E. eth excluded, see Sec.Sec.19
and 23.
6. A word that is used in a sense
distinctively Scand., as opposed
to Eng. or L.G., is to be regarded as
a loanword.
7. The distribution of a word in
South England diall., or in O.F.,
O.S. or M.L.G., indicates that the word
is not a Scand. loanword.
8. On the other hand, if a word occurs
exclusively in Scand.
settlements in England and Scotland, it
is to be regarded as due
to Scand. influence in Scotch in spite
of L.G. parallels.
9. The presence of a word in O.E.
excludes Scand. influence,
except in cases where the O.E. word has
been shown to be a
loanword. See Steenstrup and Kluge.
25. REMARKS ON THE TEXTS.
The following dates it may be well to remember:
Barbour’s “Bruce” finished
about 1375.
Wyntoun’s Chronicle written about
1420.
Henry the Minstrel’s “Wallace”
written about 1450.
Dunbar lived from 1460 to 1520.
Douglas lived from 1475 to 1520.
Sir David Lyndsay lived from 1490 to 1555.
Alexander Scott lived from 1547 to 1584.
“The Complaynt of Scotland”
was written about 1549.
Alexander Montgomery lived from 1540 to
1610.
Allan Ramsay lived from 1686 to 1758.
Robert Burns lived from 1759 to 1796.
“The Bruce,” Wyntoun’s “Cronykale” and the “Wallace” belong, then, to the early period of Scotch, which, for convenience, has been called Old Scotch. The last half of the 15th Century is a transition period. The language of Dunbar and Douglas is already Middle Scotch. Middle Scotch of the 16th Century is further represented by Lyndsay, Alexander Scott and Montgomery. “The Complaynt of Scotland” is Central Scotch of the middle of the 16th Century. Ramsay represents Early New Scotch. The language of Burns is in all essentials present Scotch. From the Scottish War of Independence down to the Union of the Crowns the literary standard of Scotland was Central Scotch. After the Union there was no longer a Scotch language of literature and Central Scotch became a mere spoken dialect like the other dialects of Scotland. The writings of Ramsay and Burns represent local dialects just as the large number of Scotch dialect writers of the last and this century have written in their own peculiar local vernacular. The great majority of loanwords are taken from “The Bruce,” “The Wallace,” Douglas, Dunbar, Scott and Montgomery. “The Bruce” has a large number of Scand. elements; it represents, however, literary Scotch and not Aberdeen Scotch of 1375.
The numbers given in the references are self-explanatory. They are generally to page and line, in some cases to book and verse, as in Bruce and Wyntoun. T.W.M. refers to Dunbar’s “Twa Mariit Wemen.” F. to “The Flyting with Kennedy.” F. after Montgomery’s name refers to “The Flyting.” G.T. refers to Dunbar’s “Golden Targe,” and C. and S. to Montgomery’s “Cherrie and the Slae.” M.P. to the “Miscellaneous Poems” and S. to the “Sonnets.”
Only words that are specifically Scotch in form or usage have been included. Very well known Scotch words, that occur in older Scotch as well as the modern dialects, such as blether, busk, ettle, kilt, etc., are given without references to texts where they have been found, otherwise one or more references are given in each case. For the sake of comparison and illustration Shetland and Cumberland forms are frequently given. Wherever a W. Scand. source is accepted for a loanword the O.N. form is given if it be different from O. Ic. Examples from Danish dialects or Swedish dialects are given as Dan. dial. or Sw. dial. Those from Norse dialects are cited as Norse simply. Those that are specifically literary Norse are cited as Dano-Norse.
LOANWORDS.
AGAIT, adv. uniformly. R.R. 622.
Sco. ae, one, + O.N. gata
literally “ae way,”
one way.
AGAIT, adv. astir, on the way. See Wall.
AGROUF, adv. on the stomach, grovelling.
Ramsay, II, 339. O.N.
a grufu, id. See
grouf.
AIRT ([)e,]rt), vb. urge, incite, force, guide,
show. O.N. erta,
to taunt, to tease, erting,
teasing. Norse erta, oerta,
id. Sw. dial. erta,
to incite some one to do a thing. Sw.
reta shows metathesis.
M.E. ertin, to provoke.
ALLGAT, adv. always, by all means. Bruce,
XII, 36; L.L. 1996. O.N.
allu gatu. O.
Ic. oellu g[o,]tu. See Kluge, P.G.(2)I,
938.
ALGAIT, ALGATIS, adv. wholly. Douglas,
II, 15, 32; II, 129, 31.
See Kluge, P.G.(2)I., 938.
ALTHING, as a sb. everything. Gau, 8,
30, corresponding to Dan.
alting. “Over
al thing,” Dan. over alting. Not
to be taken
as a regular Sco. word, however.
Gau has a number of other
expressions which correspond
closely to those of the Dan.
original of Kristjern Pedersen,
of which Gau’s work is a
translation.
ANGER, sb. grief, misery. Bruce, I, 235.
Sco. Pro. 29. O.N.
angr, grief, sorrow.
See Bradley’s Stratmann, and Kluge and
Lutz. The root ang
is general Gmc., cp. O.E. angmod,
“vexed in mind.”
M.L.G. anxt, Germ. angst, Dan. anger.
The form of the word in Eng.,
however, is Scand.
ANGRYLY, adv. painfully. Wyntoun, VI,
7, 30. Deriv., cp. Cu.
angry, painful, O.N.
angrligr, M.E. angerliche. The
O. Dan. vb. angre,
meant “to pain,” e.g., thet angar
mek,
at thu skal omod thorn stride
(Kalkar).
APERT, adj. bold. Bruce, XX, 14. apertly,
boldly, XIV, 77.
Evidently from O.N. apr,
sharp, cp. en aprasta hrieth,
“sharp fighting,”
cited in Cl. and V. Cl. and V. compares
N.Ic. napr, “snappish,”
cp. furthermore apirsmert, adj.
(Douglas, II, 37, 18), meaning
“crabbed,” the second element
of which is probably Eng.
Apr in O.N. as applied to persons
means “harsh, severe”
(Haldorson).
ASSIL-TOOTH, sb. molar tooth. Douglas, I, 2, 12. See Wall.
AT, conj. that. O.N. at, Norse,
Dan. at, to be regarded as a
Scand. word. Might in
some places be due to Celtic influence,
but its early presence, and
general distribution in Scand.
settlements in England, Scotland,
Shetland, etc., indicates
that it is Scand.
AWEBAND, sb. “a band used for tying cattle
to the stake.”
Jamieson, Lothian. O.N.
ha-band, “vinculum nervos poplitis
adstringens” (Haldorson).
Norse habbenda, “to tie cattle
with a rope between the knees
to keep them from running away.”
Cp. O. Sw. haband,
Sw. dial. haband, “a rope that unites
the oar with the oarlock.”
AWKWART, prep. athwart, across. Wallace,
III, 175; II, 109. Same
as the Eng. adj. “awkward”
which was originally an adv.
Etymologically it is the O.N.
afugr (O. Ic. oefugr) + Eng.
ward (Skeat), cp. the
Norse vb. afvige, to turn off.
I have not found the prepositional
use of the word in Eng. Cp.
“toward.”
AWSOME, adj. terrible, deriv. from awe
(O.N. agi). The ending
some is Eng. O.N.
agasamr, Norse aggsam, means
“turbulent, restless.”
AYND ([-e]nd), sb. O.N. andi, breath,
O. Sw. ande, Norse
ande, Dan. aande.
AYNDING, sb. breathing, deriv. See aynd.
AYNDLESS, adj. breathless. Bruce, X, 609. See aynd.
BAIT, vb. to incite. Dunbar, 21127.
O.N. baeita, O. Ic. beita.
See B-S.
BAITH, BATH (b[-e]th), pron. both. M.E.
b[-o]þe, b[-a]þe, Cu.
beatth, Eng. both,
O.N. b[-a]ethir, O. Dan. b[-a]ethe.
Skeat.
BAITTENIN, pr. p. thriving. Jamieson.
O.N. batna, Eng. batten.
See Skeat, and Kluge and Lutz.
BAITTLE (b[-e]tl), sb. a pasture, a lea which
has thick sward of
grass. Jamieson, Dumfries.
O.N. baeita, “to feed,” baeiti,
pasturage. Cp. Norse
fjellbaeite, a mountain pasture.
BAN, vb. to swear, curse. Dunbar, 13,
47; Rolland, II, 680. O.N.
banna, to swear, to
curse, banna, a curse, Norse banna,
to swear, banning,
swearing, W. Sw. dial. baenn id., Dan.
bande, to swear, to
wish one bad luck, O.S. banna id.
M. Du. bannen means
to excommunicate. This is the L.G.
meaning. The Sco. usage
is distinctly Scand. It is also a
Northern word in Eng. diall.
Cp. Shetland to ban, to swear.
BANG, vb. to beat. Sat. P. 39, 150.
O.N. banga, O. Sw. banka,
Norse, banke, to beat,
to strike. Cp. Shetland bonga, in
“open de door dat’s
a bonga,” somebody is knocking, literally
“it knocks” Norse
det banka. Bang is very frequently used
in the sense of rushing off,
cp. Dalrymple’s translation of
Leslie, I, 324, 7.
BANGSTER, sb. a wrangler. Sat. P.
44, 257. Evidently Norse bang
+ Eng. suffix ster.
See bang vb. Cp. camstarrie, where
the second syllable corresponds
to that in Germ.
halsstarrig.
BARK, vb. to tan, to harden. Dunbar F.
202 and 239. Ramsay, I,
164, “barkit lether,”
tanned leather. O.N. barka, to tan,
Norse barka, to tan,
to harden, M.E. barkin. General
Scand. both sb. and vb.
In the sense “to tan” especially
W. Scand., cp. Sw. barka,
to take the bark off. O. Sw.
barka, however, has
the meaning “to tan.”
BARKNIT, adj. clotted, hardened. Douglas,
II, 84, 15. pp. of vb.
barken, to tan.
See above.
BASK, adj. dry, withering (of wind). Jamieson,
Dumfries. Dan.
barsk, hard, cold,
en barsk Vinter, a cold winter. Cp.
Sco. “a bask daw,”
a windy day. M.L.G. barsch and basch
do
not agree in meaning with
the Sco. word; besides the sk is
Scand. For loss of r
before sk cp. hask from harsk.
BAUCH, BAWCH, BAUGH, adj. awkward, stiff, jaded,
disconsolate,
timid. Sat. P. 12,
58; Dunbar Twa. M.W. 143; Rolland, IV, 355;
Johnnie Gibb, 127, 2.
O.N. bagr, awkward, clownish,
inexperienced, unskilful.
Bauchly, poorly, in Ramsay,
II, 397.
BAYT, vb. to feed, graze. Bruce, XIII,
589, 591; Lyndsay, 451,
1984. O.N. baeit,
to feed, to graze, causative from bita,
literally means to make to
bite. Norse bita, to graze,
Sw. beta, M.E. beyten.
In many diall. in Norway the word
means “to urge, to force.”
Cp. bait.
BECK, sb. a rivulet, a brook. Jamieson.
O.N. bekkr, O. Sw.
baekker, Norse bekk,
O. Dan. baek. Sw. baeck, a rivulet.
In place-names a test of Scand.
settlements.
BEET, vb. to incite, inflame. Burns, 4,
8. Same as bait, incite,
q.v. Cp. Cu. “to
beet t’yubm, to supply sticks, etc. to the
oven while heating”
(Dickinson).
BIG, BEGG, sb. barley. Fergusson, II,
102; Jamieson, Dumfries.
O.N. bygg, Dan. byg.
See Wall. Cp. Shetland big.
BEGRAVE, vb. to bury. Douglas, II, 41,
25; IV, 25, 22; IV, 17, 8.
Dan. begrave, Norse
begrava, O. Sw. begrava, begrafwa,
to bury. Possibly not
a loanword.
BEIN, BENE, BEIN, adj. liberal, open-handed,
also comfortable,
pleasant. Douglas, III,
260, 23; Fergusson, 108; Sat. P. 12,
43. Beine, hearty,
in Philotus, II, is probably the same
word. O.N. baeinn.
BEIR, vb. to roar. Douglas, II, 187, 1. See bir, sb.
BIG, vb. to build, dwell, inhabit. Dunbar
T.M.W. 338; Dalr., I,
26, 19; Sco. pro. 5.
O.N. byggia. See Wall. Sco. “to
big wi’
us,” to live with us,
cp. Norse ny-byddja, to colonize.
BIGGING, BYGINE, sb. a building. O.N.
bygging, a building,
habitation. Scand. diall.
all have the form bygning, so
O. Sw. bygning.
The word may be an independent Sco.
formation just as erding,
“burial,” from erde, “to bury”;
layking, “a tournament,”
from layke, “to sport”;
casting, “a cast-off
garment,” from cast; flytting,
“movable goods,”
from flyt, “to move”; hailsing,
“a salute,” from
hailse; and Eng. dwelling, “a house,”
from vb. dwell.
Cp. however Shetland bogin.
BING, sb. a heap, a pile. Douglass, II,
216, 8. O.N. bingr,
a heap, O. Sw. binge.
Norse bing more frequently a heap or
quantity of grain in an enclosed
space. O. Dan. byng,
bing.
BIR, BIRR, BEIR, sb. clamor, noise, also rush.
S.S. 38; Lyndsay,
538, 4280. O.N. byrr,
a fair wind. O. Sw. byr. Cp.
Cu.
bur and Shetland “a
pirr o’ wind,” a gust. Also pronounced
bur, bor.
BIRRING, pr. p. flapping (of wings). Mansie
Wauch, 159, 33. See
bir.
BLA, BLAE (bl[-e]), adj. blue, livid.
Douglas, III, 130, 30;
Irving, 468. O.N. bla,
blue, Norse blaa, blau, Sw. bla,
Dan. blaa. Not
from O.E. bl[-e]o.
BLABBER, vb. to chatter, speak nonsense.
Dunbar F., 112. O.N.
blabbra, lisp, speak
indistinctly, Dan. blabbre id., Dan.
dial. blabre, to talk
of others more than is proper. M.E.
blaber, cp. Cu.
blab, to tell a secret. American dial.
blab, to inform on
one, to tattle. There is a Gael.
blabaran, sb. a stutterer,
which is undoubtedly borrowed
from the O.N. The meaning
indicates that.
BLAIK, vb. to cleanse, to polish. Johnnie
Gibb, 9, 6. O.N.
blaeikja, to bleach,
O. Sw. blekia, Sw. dial. bleika.
All
these are causative verbs
like the Sco. The inchoative
corresponding to them is blaeikna
in O.N., N.N., blekna in
O. Sw., blegne in Dan.
See blayknit. Cp. Shetland bleg,
sb. a white spot.
BLAYKNIT, pp. bleached. Douglas, III,
78, 15. O.N. blaeikna, to
become pale, O. Sw. blekna,
Norse blaeikna id. O.N.
blaeikr, pale.
Cp. Cu. blake, pale, and bleakken
with
i-fracture. O.E.
bl[-a]c, blaecan.
BLECK, vb. put to shame. Johnnie Gibb,
59, 34, 256, 13. O.N.
blekkja, to impose
upon, blekkiliga, delusively,
blekking, delusion,
fraud; a little doubtful.
BLETHER, BLEDDER, vb. to chatter, prate.
O.N. blaethra, to talk
indistinctly, blaethr,
sb. nonsense. Norse bladra, to
stammer, to prate, Sw. dial.
bladdra, Dan. dial. bladre,
to bleet. Cp. Norse
bladdra, to act foolishly.
BLATHER, sb. nonsense. Burns 32, 2, 4
and 4, 2, 4. O.N. blaethr,
nonsense. Probably the
Sco. word used substantively.
BLOME, sb. blossom. Bruce, V, 10; Dunbar,
I, 12. Same as Eng.
bloom from O.N. blomi.
BLOME, vb. to flourish, successfully resist.
Douglas, IV, 58, 25.
“No wound nor wapyn
mycht hym anis effeir, forgane the speris
so butuus blomyt he.”
Small translates “show himself
boastfully.” The
word blomi in O.N. used metaphorically
means “prosperity, success.”
BLOUT, BLOWT, adj. bare, naked, also forsaken.
Douglas, III, 76,
11; IV, 76, 6. O.N. blautr,
Norse blaut, see Cl. and V.
The corresponding vowel in
O.E. is ea: bl[-e]at. The O.N.
as well as the N.N. word means
“soft.” The O.E. word means
“wretched.”
In Sco. blout has coincided in meaning with
blait. The Dan.
word blot is, on account of its form, out
of the question.
BODIN, adj. ready, provided. Douglas,
III, 22, 24; Dunbar, 118,
36; Wyntoun, VII, 9, 213.
From boethinn, boethja (E.D.D.).
BOLAX, sb. hatchet. Jamieson. O.N.
boloex, a poleaxe, Norse
boloeks, O. Sw. boloexe,
bolyxe, O. Dan. buloex, Dano-
Norse bulaks.
Ormulum bulaxe (see further Brate).
BOLE, sb. the trunk of a tree. Isaiah,
44, 19. O.N. bolr, the
trunk of a tree, Norse bol,
bul, O. Sw. bol, bul, Sw.
dial. bol id.
BOLDIN, vb. to swell. Douglas, II, 52;
I, II, 130, 25. Norse
bolna, older bolgna,
Dan. bolne, M.E. bollen (also
bolnin). The Sco.
word has developed an excrescent d after
l. In Lindsay,
127, 3885, boildin, adj. pp. swollen.
BOLLE, sb. a measure. Bruce, III, 221;
Wyntoun, VII, 10, 519, 521,
523. O.N. bolli,
a vessel, blotbolli, a measure, Sw.
bulle. Rather
than from O.E. bolla (Eng. bowl).
BOUN, adj. bent upon, seems to have almost
the idea of “compelled
to.” Gol. and Gaw.
813. O.N. buinn. See Wall under bound,
and Cl. and V. under bua
B. II.
BOUNE, vb. to prepare, to prepare to go, to
go. Houlate, I, 23;
Poet. R. 107, I; Gol.
and Gaw. 59, 13, 40. See bown.
BOWDYN, pp. adj. swollen. Dunbar T.M.W.
41, 345; Montg. F. 529.
See boldin.
BOWK, sb. trunk of the body, body. Dunbar,
248, 25; Rolland, II,
343. O.N. bukr,
the trunk, the body, Norse b[-u]k, Dan.
bug, O. Sw. buker.
Specific Scand. usage. O.E. b[-u]c,
like O.F. buk and Germ.
bauch, meant “belly.”
BOW, sb. a fold for cows. Douglas, III,
11, 4. O.N. bol, a place
where cows are penned, also
den, lair or lying-place of
beasts. Norse bol,
Shetland bol, bol, a fold for cattle.
In Psalms XVII, 12, bole
occurs in the sense of “a lion’s
den.”
BOWN, adj. ready, prepared. L.L. 1036.
O.N. buinn. Not Eng., but
a loanword from O.N., and
as Kluge P.G.(2)I, 939, has pointed
out shows also Norse influence
in the Midland dial.
BOWNE, vb. to swell. Irving, 230.
O.N. bolgna to swell, Norse
bolna, Dan. bolne.
Shows characteristic Sco. change of l
to w. In boudin,
Irving, 467, an excrescent d has
developed before the l
became u (w). Wallace, VI, 756,
bolnyt, swelled.
So in Wyntoun, IX, 17, 5. Boldnit with
excrescent d occurs
in Douglas, II, 84, 16.
BRA, BRAE, BRAY (br[-e]), a slope, declivity.
O.N. bra, see
Bradley’s Stratmann.
Cp. Joestedalsbrae in Western Norway.
BRAID (br[-e]d), sb. a sudden movement, an
assault (Small).
Douglas, III, 251, 2.
O.N. brageth, a sudden motion, a quick
movement, tricks or sleights
in wrestling. O. Sw. braghþ,
a sudden motion. Norse,
Sw. bragd, manner of execution,
exploit. The fundamental
idea in the Sco. and the O. Nh. word
is sudden movement. The
O.E. braegd meant deceit, fraud.
BRAITH, adj. hasty, violent. Wallace,
X, 242. O.N. braethr,
sudden, hasty, O. Dan. braadh,
Norse braad. Cp. braahast
(E. Norse), great hurry,
O. Sw. brader, brodher, hasty,
violent, Orm. bra,
angry. Brothfall (Orm), a fit, broth
(Eng. dial.), in Skeat’s
list. Braithful, violent, sharp.
BRAITHLY, adv. violently, suddenly. O.N.
braethliga, hastily. Cp.
E. Norse braaleg adj.,
and M. Dan. bradelig. O.N.
braethorethr means
“hasty of speech.”
BROKIT, BRUKIT, adj. streaked, spotted.
Burns, 569. O. Sw.
brokoter, Norse brokut,
Dan. broget, variegated,
striped. Cp. dannebrog,
the Danish flag. Same as Cu.
breukt. Probably
the same with Shetland brogi, in “a brogi
sky,” cloudy. May
possibly be Eng. Exists in M.L.G.
BROD, sb. a sharp point. Wyntoun, VI,
14, 70. O.N. broddr,
Norse, Sw. brodd, Orm.
brodd. (See Brate.)
BROD, vb. to prick, spur on, incite. C.S.
123; Douglas, III, 3,
20; Dunbar T.M.W. 330.
O.N. brodda, to prick, to urge. Dan.
brodde means “to
equip with points,” a vb. later developed
out of the sb.
BRONT, sb. force, rush, shock. Douglas,
I, 90, 20; II, 161, 28.
“At the first bront
we swept by.” See Skeat brunt.
BUD, sb. a bribe, an offer. Lyndsay, 436,
1616; Dunbar T.M.W. 142.
O.N. bod, an offer,
Norse bod, Sw. bud, Dan. dial.
bud, an offer at an
auction. Cp. O.E. friethbote, a peace-
offering, O.N. frieth
+ boeth.
BUGHT, sb. a corner or stall where cows are
milked. Ramsay, II,
539. O.N. bugt,
a bowing, a bight, Norse bugt, Dan.
bugt.
BULLER, vb. to trickle, bubble. Winyet,
II, 62. O.N. buldra,
Norse bulrdra.
See E.D.D. cp. Sw. bullra, to make an
indistinct noise. O.
Fr. bulder, L.G. bullern (see
Koolman), Germ. poltern
all have more the idea of loud
noise, clamor, as the Norse
word sometimes has. Lyndsay, 226,
95, uses the word in this
sense. It may be genuine Eng.
BUSK, vb. to prepare, dress, adorn, ornament.
O.N. buask from
bua sik, to make ready,
to ornament. See Wall. Exhibits
W. Scand. reflexive ending
sk. The Gael. busgainnich, to
dress, to adorn, is a loanword
from O.N.
BUSKIE, adj. fond of dress, Jamieson, busk
sb. dress,
decoration. See busk
vb.
BUITH ([-u]), sb. booth, shop. Winyet,
1, 23, 2. O.N. bueth, shop,
O. Dan. both, bodh.
O. Sw. boeth, Norse bud, Sw. bod,
Dan. dial. bod.
M.E. b[-o]þe, cp. M.L.G. bode.
BYNG, vb. to heap up. Douglas, III, 144, 5. See bing sb.
BYRD, vb. impers., it behoved. Bruce,
VI, 316. O.N. byrja, to
behove, beseem, pret. burethi,
Norse byrja id., pret.
burde, O. Dan. boerae,
Sw. boera.
BYSNING, adj. strange, monstrous, terrible,
Douglas, I, 29, 7;
I, 37, 5; II, 70, 17.
M.E. biseninge, ill-boding, monstrous,
from O.N. bysna, to
portend, Norse bisna, to marvel over.
BYSNING, sb. a strange person, an unusually
unfortunate person.
Douglas, I, 2544; I, 339.
O.N. bysna, to portend, bysn,
a strange and portentous thing.
Norse bysn, a prodigy,
bysning, curiosity.
See the adj. Cp. Shetland soni-bosni,
O.N. sjonar-bysn, a
marvel.
CADYE, adj. wanton. Lyndsay, LXXXVII,
2567. Also written cady,
caidgy, caigie;
sometimes means “sportive, cheerful.”
Dan.
kaad, merry, lusty,
lustful. So Sw. kat, O.N. katr,
merry, cheerful, Norse kaat.
Cp. Philotus 5, “the carle
caiges,” where the same
word is used as a vb. to wanton, be
wanton.
CALLER, adj. cool. Fergusson, 73.
Very common in modern Sco.
diall. O.N. kaldr,
Norse kall, cold. Seems to be a case
of the Norse inflexional r
not disappearing in Sco.
CANGLER, a wrangler. Ramsay, II, 482. Norse
kengla, kaeingla,
kjaeingla, to quarrel.
A Sco. vb. cangle, to quarrel, also
exists. Cp. O.N.
kangin-yrethi, jeering words, Yorkshire
caingy, cross, ill-tempered.
CAPPIT, vb. pret. strove. Douglas, II,
154, 21. O.N. kapp,
contest, zeal, deila kappi
vieth, strive with. Norse kapp
id. kappa, reflexive,
to race. Dan. kamp, O.E. camp,
cempam. The Sco.
word exhibits W. Scand. assimilation of
mp to pp, the
form kapp, however, also existed in O. Sw.
and exists in N.Dan.
In Cu. a capper is one who excels. This
is probably the same word.
See, however, E.D.
CAREING (k[-e]r), pr. p. driving, from care,
caire, to drive.
Douglas, III, 166, 10; Wallace,
IX, 1240. O.N. koeyra, O. Ic.
keyra, Norse koyra,
to drive, ride, O. Ic. keyrsla,
a driving, Norse kjorsel,
id. Cp. Shetland care, id.
Monophthongation in O. Sw.
koera, Dan. koere.
CARL, sb. a man, an old man, very frequently
with an idea of
disrespect. C.S., 144.
O.N. karl, Norse kar, a man,
fellow, but kall, an
old man, with assimilation of rl to
ll. W.Norse kadl
exhibits the change of ll to dl.
In
Dan. and in Sw. dial karl.
Cu. carl means a coarse fellow.
Dunbar has the word wifcarl,
man.
CARLAGE, adj. oldish, decrepit. Irving,
172. O.N. karl +
leikr.
CARLING, KARLING, CARLINE, sb. an old woman,
a slatternly woman.
O.N. kerling, an old
woman, karlinna, a woman. O. Dan.
kaerlingh, O. Sw. kaerling,
Norse kjaering, Dan. kiaerling
(pronounced kaelling),
id. Dan. dial. kerling. Cp. Gael.
cailliach. Does
not seem to exist in Eng. diall. south of
the border.
CARP, KARP, vb. to talk, converse. Wyntoun,
VI, 18, 313. O.N.
karpa. See Skeat
Et.D.
CASTINGS, sb. pl. cast off clothes. Dunbar’s
Complaynt, 43. Deriv.
from cast. O.N.
kasta.
CHAFT, sb. the jaw, also used vulgarly for
the mouth. O.N.
kjaptr, the jaw.
Norse kjaeft, vulgar name for the mouth.
O. Sw. kiaepter, M.
Sw. kaeft, Dan. kjaeft, M.E. chaft.
CHAFT-BLADE, CHAFF-BLADE, sb. jaw. Mansie
Wauch, 41, 20; 76, 23;
147, 28. Cp. Norse
kjaefte-blad, id. See chaft.
CHOWK, sb. jawbone. Dalr., VIII, 112,
14; Isaiah, L, 6. O.N.
kjalki, the jawbone,
Norse kj[-a]ke.
CHYNGIEL, sb. gravel. Douglas, III, 302,
30. Norse singl, see
Skeat, and Wall.
CLED, pp. clad, clothed. Wallace, I, 382.
O.N. klaeddr, dressed,
from klaeetha.
O.E. claeethan, from which N. Eng. clothe,
was
borrowed from the Scand. in
late O.E. See Kluge P.G.(2)I,
932.
CLAG, sb. a stain, a flaw. Dalr., VIII,
97, 17. The vowel in O.N.
kleggi does not correspond.
It is rather Dan. klag, see
claggit.
CLAGGIT, adj. clagged, literally adhering,
sticking, vb. clag,
to stick. Lindsay, LXXXVII,
2667. Dan. klaeg, mud, sticky
clay, as adj. sticky, cp.
Cu. claggy, adhesive, clog, to
stick to, O.E. claeg,
from which N. Eng. clay. Possibly
from an unpalatalized O. Nhb.
claeg.
Cleading, sb. dress, clothing, A.P.B. 110 cp.
Norse klaedning,
Sco. formation, same as clothing
in Eng. The Sco. vb. is
cleed.
CLECKIN, sb. brood of chickens. Burns,
99, 4. Cp. O.N. klekking,
chicken, but probably Sco.
formation from cleck, to hatch,
q.v.
CLEG, sb. the gadfly, horsefly. Burns,
88, I. O.N. kleggi,
horsefly, Dan. kleg.
See Wall.
CLEK, vb. to hatch. Dunbar, 105; Douglas,
II, 198, 3. O.N.
klekja, O. Sw. klaekkia,
Norse kloekkja, kloettja, Dan.
klaekke, Sw. klaecka,
id.
CLOFF, sb. fork, fissure. Montg.
F., 60. O.N. klof, bifurcation,
O. Dan. klov, a rift
in a tree, O. Sw. klovi, id. Norse
klov, a cleft opening.
Cp. Sco. long-cloved and Ic.
klof-langr.
CLOUR, vb. to beat, strike; always used with
reference to personal
encounters. O.N. klora,
to scratch, Norse kl[-o]ra id.,
kl[-o]r sb. used with
reference to the scratch one gets as
the result of a blow.
In Sco. clour may also mean the blow
itself.
CLOUR, CLOWRE, sb. a scratch or swelling after
a blow. Fergusson,
120; Philotus, 153; Douglas,
I, 6, 4. O.N. klor,
a scratching. Norse kl[-o]r.
Probably Sco. formation.
CLUBBIT, adj. clubfooted, clumsy. Montg.
S., XXVIII; M.P., 13, 30.
O.N. klubba and klumba,
Norse klubba, Dan., Norse
klump. Cp.
Eng. clump. Soederwall gives klubba,
klobba,
probably M. Sw. Cp.
N.Dan. klubbe. Exhibits assimilation of
mb to bb which
is general in W. Scand. Also appears to
some extent later in E. Scand.
Eng. club is Scand. See
Skeat.
CLUNK, vb. to emit a hollow and uninterrupted
sound. Jamieson,
Ayr. O.N. klunka,
Norse klunka, to emit a gurgling sound.
O. Sw. klunka, Eng.
clink shows umlaut.
CLYFFT, sb. a cleft, a fissure. Wallace,
VII, 859. Norse klyft,
kluft, Ic. kluft,
Sw. klyfta, Dan. kloft. See also
Skeat under cleft,
and B.S. cluft. The Sco. word like the
M.E. exhibits the umlaut which
has taken place in some places
in Norway and Sweden.
COG, KOG, COGGIE, sb. a keg, a wooden vessel
of any kind.
Ferguson, 13; Burns, 195,
51, 2; 195, 50, 6. O.N. kaggi,
Norse kagge, Dan.
Sw. kagge, a cask, a barrel. Skeat cites
the form cag for Eng.
diall. The Sco. word preserves more
closely the Norse sound, which
is not o, but a. On L.G.
cognates see Skeat Et.D.
COSTLYK, adj. costly, magnificent. Wyntoun,
VIII, 28, 76; IX, 18,
66, costlike. O.N. kostligr,
costly, choice, desirable.
O. Sw. kosteliker,
O. Dan. kostaelic, N. Dan. kostelig,
Norse kosteleg, costly,
magnificent. Deriv. costlykly.
Wyntoun, VII, 5, 96.
COUR, vb. to bow, to croutch. O.N. kura,
O. Dan. kurae, O. Sw.
kura, Norse kura,
kurra, bend down, become quiet, go to
rest. Norse kurr,
adj. silent, kurrende still, perfectly
quiet, cowered to silence.
The fundamental idea in the O.N.
word was probably that of
“lying quiet.” Cp. Shetland to
cur, to sit down.
Isaiah, LVIII, 5: “His head till cower like
a seggan flouir.”
COW, vb. to overcome, surpass, “beat.”
O.N. kuga, to compel to
something, to tyrannize over.
Dan kue, underkue, suppress,
oppress, Norse kua,
press down, also put into subjection.
The more general meaning in
the modern diall. is “to beat.”
“To cow a’,”
in Barrie, to beat everything; cow’d,
Fergusson
117, terrified.
CRAIK, sb. crow. Burns, 226, 119, 3, and
121, 1. O.N. kraka,
Norse kraake, krauka,
Dan. krage, Shetland kraga,
crow. See also Wall.
CRAVE, vb. to demand payment of a debt, to
dun. A regular Sco. use
of the word. O.E. crafian
is a loanword from Scand. See
Kluge P.G.(2)I, 933.
Cp. Norse kreva, to dun.
CROVE, sb. hut, cottage. Ramsay, I, 158.
O.N. kro, a hut,
a little cottage (Haldorson),
Norse, kro, specialized to
“wine or ale house.”
So in Dan.
CUNNAND, adj. knowing, skilful, dexterous.
Wyntoun, VII, 3, 28;
connand, V, 12, 1243;
Douglas, II, 18, 22. O.N. kunnandi,
knowing, learned, Norse kunnande,
skilled. Deriv.
cunnandly, conandly
(Wallace, I, 248).
CUNNANDNESS, sb. skill, knowledge, wisdom.
Wyntoun, V, 12, 280;
VII, 8, 667. Sb. formation
from cunnand.
DAGGIT, adj. pp. soaked. Montg. S.,
68, 11. O.N. doeggva, to
bedew, doeggottr, covered
with dew, Norse dogga, id., Sw.
dagg, thin, drizzling
rain, O. Sw. dag, dew, Shetland
dag, dew, “he’s
dagen,” it is misting. Cp. Cu. daggy,
misty.
DAPILL, adj. gray. Douglas, II, 257, 19;
Scott 72, 126, “till hair
and berd grow dapill.”
O.N. depill. See Skeat.
DAPPLET, adj. spotted, flecked. Burns,
VII, 11. See dapple in
Skeat Et.D.
DASH, vb. to strike. Burns, 210, 872,
8, 7. O.N. daska, to
strike, sb. dask, a
strike, Norse daska, Dan., Sw.
daska, M.E. daschen.
See Bradley’s Stratmann.
DE, DEE, vb. to die, M.E. deyen.
Undoubtedly a Scand. loan-word.
Luik (91-93), agreeing with
Napier, thinks the word is native
from primitive Gmc. *_daujan_.
I think, however, with Kluge,
that if the word had existed
in O.E. it would have appeared
earlier. See Kluge P.G.(2)I,
933. O.N. doeyja, Norse doei,
O. Dan. doeia, Dan,
doe. On M.E. deyen see Brate.
DEGRAITHIT, pp. deprived of. Lyndsay,
523, 3935. Formed from the
sb. graith, possessions,
hence degraith, to dispossess.
Cp. the Eng. parallel.
See graith.
DEY, DEE, sb. maid, woman. A.P.B., 151;
Ramsay 399. O.N. daeigja,
a dairy maid, Norse deigja,
servant, budeie, dairy maid,
O. Sw. deghia, deijha,
maid, girl, sweetheart, O. Dan.
deije, mistress, deijepige,
servant. The Sco. word has
nearly always the general
sense of “woman.”
DING, vb. to drive, strike, beat, overcome.
O.N. dengja, to
hammer, Norse dengja,
denge, to whip, beat, O. Sw.
daengia id., Sw. daenge,
O. Dan. daenge, M.E. dingen.
A very common word in Sco.,
used quite generally as Eng.
“beat,” in the
sense of “surpassing.” “To ding
a’” = to beat
everything. Cp. “to
cow a’.”
DIRDUM, sb. tumult, uproar. Douglas, I,
117, 9. O.N. dyra-domr,
“doordoom, an ancient
tribunal held at the door of the house
of the suspected person, which
often was followed by uproar
and bloodshed” (Small).
The word appears in Gael. as durdan.
DOIF, adj. deaf, dull. Irving, 214.
See douff. For similar
parallel forms cp. gowk
and goilk; nowt and nolt;
howk and holk;
lowp and loip; bowdyn and boildin,
etc.
DONK, adj. damp, moist. Douglas, II, 196,
32; Dunbar, G.T., 97.
Cu. donky. See
Skeat under dank. Cp. donk sb.
DONK, sb. a moist place. Rolland, I, 2.
Sw. dial. dank, a moist
marshy place, small valley.
O.N. doekk, a pool, Norse dok,
a valley, Shetland dek.
Exhibits E. Scand. non-assimilation
of nk to kk.
DONK, vb. to moisten. Dunbar, T.M.W.,
10, 512. M.E. donken, to
moisten. See donk,
adj.
DONNART, adj. stupid, stupefied. Mansie
Wauch, 96, 29. Norse
daana, Sw. dana,
to faint. For the r cp. dumbfoundered,
M.W., p. 210, 25. An
excrescent r appears in a number of
words, so in dynnart,
a variant of the word above, Dunbar,
T.M.W. 10. Cp. daunert,
in stupor, Johnnie Gibb, 56, 44,
and dauner, to wander
aimlessly, Psalms CVII, 40.
DOOCK, DUCK. sb. a kind of coarse cloth.
Jamieson. Probably in
this case, as the form of
the word indicates, from O.N.
dukr, O. Sw. d[-u]ker,
cloth. Cp. Norse d[-u]k, Dan.
dug, Sw. dial. duk.
Skeat derives the Eng. duck from Du.
dock, but the Sco.
word agrees more closely with the Norse.
DOSEN, adj. stupefied. Burns 220, 107,
2. Cp. Cu. dozent,
stupefied, and Mansie Wauch,
207, 24, dozing, whirling,
sprawling. The Norse
work dusen has the same meaning as
dosen above. The
form dosynt, pp. dazed, stunned (Burns),
is to be explained from a
Sco. vb. dosen (not necessarily
dosnen in Scotland),
corresponding to M.E. dasin, O.N.
dasa. See Skeat
under doze.
DOWFF, DOUF, DOLF, adj. deaf, dull, melancholy,
miserable.
Douglas, II, 63, 11; Burns,
44, 4. O.N. daufr, deaf, Norse
dauv, drowsy, dull,
dauva, make drowsy. See dowie.
DOWIE, DOWY, adj/ melancholy, dismal.
O.N. doufr, dead, drowsy.
Norse dauv, dau,
id. Cp. Sco. doolie and Ir. doiligh,
mournful, O.N. daufligr,
dismal.
DOWLESS, adj. careless, worthless. Isaiah,
32, 11. O.N.
duglauss, Norse duglaus,
good for nothing, said of a person
who has lost all courage or
strength, as opposed to duglegr,
capable. Norse dugloysa,
weakness, inability. Cp. Dan.
due, to be able.
Germ. taugen.
DRAIK, vb. to drown, drench. Lyndsay,
247, 714; draikit, Isaiah,
I, 22. Apparently from
O.N. drekkja, to drown, to swamp. The
vowel is difficult to explain.
The Cu. form drakt, drenched,
wet, indicates a verb, drak.
The change in vowel would then
be similar to that in dwall
from O.N. dvelja, Eng.
dwell. Uncertain.
DRAM, sb. a drink. Fergusson, 40; Mansie
Wauch, 9, 9; 90, 2. Norse
dram, a drink, always
used with reference to a strong drink,
so in Sco. Dan. dram,
as much of a strong drink as is taken
at one time (Molbeck).
O. Sw. dramb, drinking in general,
carousing. This usage
of dram is distinctively Scand. and
Sco. Cp. Eng. dram,
Sco. vb. dram, to furnish with drinks.
DRAWKIT, adj. drenched. Dunbar 142, 102;
Douglas, I, 56, 12; III,
303, 8. See draik.
The vowel is difficult to explain.
Absence of n before
the k proves that it is either a
Scand. loanword direct, or
a Sco. formation from one. There is
no Scand. word from which
drawkit could come. It may be a
Sco. formation from draik.
For change of ai to aw cp.
agent and awgent;
various and vawrious, in Aberdeen
dial. The M. Dan. drockne,
N. Norse drokna, would hardly
account for aw in drawkit.
DROOK, to drench, to drown. Isaiah, XVI, 9; LV,
10; Psalms, VI, 6.
Cannot come from O.N. drekkja.
Probably from O.N. drukna,
to drown, Norse drukna,
O. Dan. dronkne, by lengthening of
the vowel. Cp. Cu.
drookt, severely wet. The following
infinitive forms also occur,
draik, drowk, drawk.
DROUKIT, adj. drenched. Fergusson, 40. See drook.
DRUCKEN, DRUKEN, adj. drunken, addicted to
drink. O.N., Norse
drukken, pp. of drikka,
to drink. Early E. Scand. has the
unassimilated form. Cp.
O. Dan. dronkne, drone. Later Dan.
drougne, drocken.
Early Sw. drokken.
DUDDY, adj. ragged. Fergusson, 146; Burns,
68, 48. See duds.
Cp. Cu. duddy fuddiel,
a ragged fellow.
DUDS, sb. pl. rags, clothes, O.N. dudi,
“vestes plumatae”
(Haldorson), duda (duetha),
to wrap up heavily, to swaddle.
Gael. dud, rag, is
a loan-word from O.N. It is possible that
the word may have come into
Lowland Sco. by way of Gael.
EGG, vb. to urge on, to incite. O.N. eggja,
goad, incite, Norse
egga, Dan. egge,
id. The word is general Gmc., but this
specific sense is Scand.
Cp. O. Fr. eggia, to quarrel, to
fight. M.L.G. eggen,
to cut, to sharpen a sword.
EGGING, sb. excitement, urging. Bruce, IV, 539. See egg.
EIDENT, YDAN, YTHAND, adj. diligent. Dalr.,
I, 233, 35; Fergusson,
94; Douglas, I, 86, 17.
O.N. iethinn, assiduous, diligent,
iethja, to be active.
Norse idn, activity, industry. Cp.
Dan. id, idelig.
ELDING, sb. fuel. Dalr., I, 10, 8.
O.N. elding, firing, fuel.
Norse elding, id.
Cu. eldin. From O.N. eldr, fire.
Cp. Shetland eld,
fire. See N.E.D.
ELDNYNG, sb. passion, also jealousy. Dunbar,
36, 204; 119, 126,
literally “firing up.”
O.N. eldr, fire. Cp. Sw. elding.
ENCRELY, YNKIRLY, adv. especially, particularly.
Bruce, I, 92;
I, 301; X, 287. O.N.
einkarlegr, O. Dan. enkorlig, O. Sw.
enkorlika, adj. adv.
special, especially. Cp. Norse
einkeleg, unusual,
extraordinary. See B-S and Skeat’s
glossary to Barbour’s
Bruce.
END, sb. breath. Sat. P., 42, 63. See aynd.
END, vb. to breathe upon. Dalr., I, 29,
6. O.N. anda, Norse
anda, breathe, M.E.
anden.
ERD, vb. to bury. Dunbar, F., 372; Douglas,
II, 266, 10; Bruce,
XX, 291. O.N. jaretha,
to bury, O. Sw. iorþa. O.E. eardian
meant “to dwell, inhabit.”
See further Wall. A case of
borrowed meaning, the form
is Eng.
ERDING, sb. burial. Bruce, IV, 255; XIX, 86. See erd vb.
ESPYNE, sb. a long boat. Bruce, XVII,
719. O.N. espingr,
a ship’s boat, Sw. esping.
ETTIL, ETIL, sb. aim, design. Douglas,
II, 249, 13; II, 254. See
ettil vb.
ETLYNG, sb. aim, endeavor, intention.
Bruce, II, 22; I, 587; R.R.,
1906. Probably a deriv.
from ettle, see below, but cp. O.N.
etlun, design, plan,
intention.
ETTLE, ETTIL, vb. to intend, aim at, attempt.
O.N. aetla, intend,
O. Dan. aetlae, ponder
over, Norse etla, intend, determine,
or get ready to do a thing.
Cu. ettle, York, attle. In
Isaiah, LIX, colophon, ettle
signifies “means, have the
meaning.”
FALOW, vb. to match, compare. R. R., 3510.
Also the regular form
of the sb. in Sco., O.N. felagr.
See Skeat, B-S under
f[-e]la[*g]e. The Sco.
vowel is long as in O.N. and M.E. The
tendency in Sco. is toward
a in a great many words that have
e in Eng. Cp.
Aberdeen wast for west; laft for
left;
stap for step;
sattlit for settled, S. Sco. wat
for
wet. Similar unfronting
of the vowel is seen in prenciple,
reddance, enterdick.
FANG, vb. to catch, seize. O.N. fanga,
to fetch, capture. Norse
fanga, Dan. fange.
This word in Northern England and
Scotland is to be regarded
as a Scand. loan-word. The word
fangast, a marriageable
maid, cited by Wall, proves this.
Literally the word means something
caught (cp. Norse
fangst). This
meaning could not possibly have arisen out of
the O.E. word, but is explained
by the Norse use of it and the
peculiar Norse custom, cp.
fanga k[o,]nu, to wed a woman,
kvan-fang, marriage,
fangs-tieth, wedding-season, Norse
brylloep < brudlaup,
the “bride-run.” Wall suggests that
it
may come from the root of
O.E. pp. gefangen. Its presence in
S.Eng. diall. in the meaning
“to struggle, to bind,” may be
explained in this way.
FARANDNESS, sb. comeliness, handsomeness.
R.R., 1931. See
farrand. Cp. cunnandness,
from pr. p. cunnand.
FARRAND, adj. appearing, generally well-appearing,
handsome, e.g.,
a seemly farrand person.
The word frequently means “fitting,
proper,” O.N. fara,
to suit, to fit, a secondary sense of
fara, to go.
FEIR, FER, adj. sound, unharmed. O.N.
faerr, safe, well, in
proper condition, originally
applied to a way that was in
proper condition or a sea
that was safe, e.g., Petlandsfjoerethr
var eigi faerr, the Pentland
Firth was not safe, could not be
crossed. Norse for
also has this same meaning, also means
“handy, skillful,”
finally “strong, well-built.” Dan.,
Sw.
foer, able. So
in Dunbar, 258, 51. Sometimes spelled fier.
FELL, sb. mountain. O.N. fjald, Norse fjell. See Wall.
FILLOK, sb. a giddy young woman. Douglas,
III, 143, 10; Lyndsay,
87, 2654. Diminutive
of filly, q.v.
FILLY, sb. a chattering, gossipy young woman.
Ramsay, II, 328.
Sco. usage. See Skeat
under filly, O.N. fylja.
FIRTH, sb. a bay, arm of the sea. O.N.
fjoerethr, O. Sw.
fjoerdher. See
Skeat.
FLAKE, sb. a hurdle. Douglas, IV, 14,
10. O.N. flaki, a hurdle,
or shield wicker-work.
Norse flake, Sw. flake and O. Sw.
flaki. Cu. flaks,
pieces of turf, is probably the same.
Cp. Norse flake,
in kote-flake.
FLAT, adj. dull, spiritless. Rolland,
Prol. 16. O.N. flat, Norse
flat, ashamed, disappointed,
fara flatt fyrir einem, to
fare ill, be worsted, O. Dan.
flad, weak.
FLECKERIT, pp. adj. spotted. Gol. and
Gaw., 475. O.N. flekkr,
a spot, flekkottr,
spotted. The r in the Sco. word is
frequentative, not the inflexional
ending of the O.N. See also
Skeat under fleck.
FLEGGER, sb. a flatterer. Dunbar, F.,
242. Dan. dial. flaegger,
false, flaegre, to
flatter.
FLINGIN TREE, sb. a piece of timber hung by
way of partition
between two horses in a stable
(Wagner), Burns, 32, 23. O.N.
flengja, Norse flenga,
flengja, to fling, to sling. Sw.
flaenga, O. Ic. flengja,
to whip up, to cause to hurry, to
ride furiously. The Norse
and the Dan., like the English, do
not have the primary meaning
seen in O. Ic. and N.Sw. See
further Skeat.
FLIT, vb. to move, change abode. O.N.
flyttja, Norse flytta,
O. Dan. flyttae, O.
Sw. flyttia, to move, M.E. flytten
. The O.N. flyttja
meant “to migrate,” as also the M.E. word,
otherwise the usage is the
same in all the Scand. languages.
Sco. flit is to be
derived from O.N. not from Sw.
FLYRE, vb. to grin, leer, whimper, look surly.
Montg. F., 188.
Dunbar, T.M.W., 114.
O.N., flira, Norse flira, smile at,
leer, laugh, Dan. flire
to leer, M.E. fliren. The three
words flina, flira
and flisa in Scand. mean the same.
Cu. fliar, to laugh
heartily. See also Wall.
FLYTTING, sb. furniture, moveable goods.
Wyntoun, VIII, 38, 50. In
Wallace simply in the sense
of removal. O.N. flutning,
transport, carriage of goods.
The Sco. word is probably a
deriv. from flyt, as
indicated also by the umlauted vowel.
FORELDERS, sb. pl. parents. Gau. 15, 2.
Dan. foraeldre, Sw.
foeraeldrar, Norse
foreldre, parents. In the sense
“ancestors” the
word is general Gmc, but the above use is
specifically Scand. In
Sco. the word usually has the general
sense. Gau has Dan. elements
that are not to be found in other
Sco. works.
FORJESKIT, adj. jaded, fatigued. Burns,
44, 29. Dan. jask adj.,
jaske vb. to rumple,
put in disorder, jask, a rag,
jasket, hjasket
left in disordered condition. Dan. dial.
jasked, clumsy, homely.
Sw. dial. jaska, to walk slovenly
and as if tired, jasked,
adj. in bad condition. R.L.
Stevenson in “The Blast”
uses forjaskit in the sense of
“jaded.”
The prefix for may be either Eng. or Dan.
FORLOPPIN, adj. renegade. Sat., p. 44,
243. The pp. of loup, to
leap, to run, with intensive
prefix for. See loup. Cp. the
Norse forloppen from
laeupa, used precisely in the same
way, and the Dan. dial. loben.
Forloppin as sb., Dunbar,
139. See also loppert.
FORS, sb. a stream. O.N. fors,
N.Ic. and Norse foss, Dan., Sw.
foss, stream, waterfall,
O.N. forsa, to foam, spout. The
word is very common in Norway,
not so common in Sweden and
Denmark.
FORTH, sb. Dunbar, 316, 63. Same as firth.
FRA, FRAE, prep. and conj. from, since.
Aberdeen form fae.
O.N. fra, from, Dan.
fra, Norse fra, Sw. fra.
Deriv.
from “from,” according
to Wall, by analogy of o’, etc.
I do
not believe so. It is
first found in Scand. settlements and is
confined to them. Besides
m would not be likely to fall out.
The case is quite different
with f and n in “of” and
“in”
when before “the.”
Furthermore, the conjunctive use of fra
as in Sco. is Norse.
FRECKLIT, FRECKLED, adj. flecked, spotted,
differing slightly from
the Eng. use. Douglas,
II, 216, 5; Mansie Wauch, 18, 5,
“freckled corn.”
O.N. freknur. See Kluge and Lutz, and
Skeat. In M.W. above:
“The horn-spoons green and black
freckled.”
FREND, sb. relation, relative. Wyntoun,
VII, 10, 354. O.N.
fraendi, kinsman, O.
Dan. fraendi, Norse fraende, Sw.
fraende, id. O.E.
fr[-e]ond, O.H.G. friunt, O. Fr.
friond, friund,
M.L.G. vrint, “friend.” Cp.
the Sco.
proverb: “Friends
agree best at a distance,” relations agree
best when there is no interference
of interests, Jamieson.
FRESTIN, vb. to tempt, taunt, also to try.
Gol. and Gaw., 902,
911; Ramsay, I, 271.
O.N. fraeista, to tempt, Norse
freista, frista,
to tempt, try, O. Sw. fresta, Dan.
friste, Sw. dial. freista,
to attempt, O.E. fr[-a]sian.
GANAND, adj. fitting, proper. Dunbar,
294; Douglas, II, 24, 19.
Pr. p. of gane.
Cp. Eng. fitting. See gane.
GANE, vb. to be suitable. L.L., 991; Rolland,
II, 135. O.N.
gegna, to suit, to
satisfy, from gegn. O. Sw. gen,
same
root in Germ. begegnen.
See further Kluge. Entirely
different from gane,
to profit.
GANE, vb. to profit. L.L., 131; R.R.,
1873. O.N. gagne, to help,
be of use, gagn, use,
profit, Norse gagna, id., O. Sw.
gaghna, to profit,
Dan. gavne.
GANE, sb. the mouth and throat. Douglas,
III, 168, 26. Cannot come
from O.E. gin, O.N.
gin, mouth, because of the quality of
the vowel, is, however, Norse
gan, gane, the throat, the
mouth and throat, Sw. gan,
gap, the inside of the mouth.
GAIT, GATE, GAT, sb. road, way, manner.
O.N. gata, O. Dan.
gatae, M.E. g[-a]te.
See Wall. Cp. Northern Eng. “to gang
i’ that rwoad,”
to continue in that manner.
GARTH, GAIRTH, sb. the yard, the house with
the enclosure,
dwelling. O.N. garethr,
a yard, the court and premises, O. Sw.
garþer, gardh,
the homeplace, Dan. gaard, M.E. garth,
and yeard from O.E.
geard, Cu. garth, Shetland gard.
Is in form more specifically
Norse than Dan. Occurs in a
number of place-names in South
Scotland, especially Dumfries.
See I, Sec.3.
GATEFARRIN, adj. wayfaring, in the sense of
fit to travel, in
suitable apparel for travel.
Johnnie Gibb, 12, 35. Wall
distinguishes rightly between
the O.N. and the Eng. use of the
word fare. This
Scand. use of the word is confined to Norway
and Iceland, and is, at any
rate in the later period, more
characteristic of Icelandic
than Norse. Cp. a similar use of
the word sitta, in
Norse, to look well, said of clothes that
look well on a person.
Not quite the same.
GAWKY, adj. foolish. Burns, 78, 60. From gowk. Cp. gawkish.
GEDDE, sb. a pike (fish). Bruce, II, 576;
Sat. P. I, 53, 9. O.N.
gedda, the pike, Dan.
gjedde, Sw. gaedda. Not in M.E.,
except in Sco. works, and
does not seem to exist in Eng.
diall.
GEMSAL, YEMSEILL, YHEMSALE, sb. concealment,
secrecy. Bruce, XX,
231; Wyntoun, VIII, 19, 206;
VIII, 36, 84. O.N. goeymsla,
O. Ic. geymsla, Norse
goymsla, goymsel, concealment.
Dano-Norse gjemsel.
The ending sal is distinctively Scand.
Cp. traengsel, misery;
laengsel, longing; horsel, hearing;
pinsel, torture; trudsel,
threat; opforsel, conduct;
Sco. tynsell, hansell,
etc.
GEN[G]ELD, _sb._ reward, recompense. Douglas,
II, 100, 12; II,
111, 17; Scott, 59, 62.
O.N. _gegn-gjald_, reward, O. Dan.
_gengaeld_, _giengiald_ id.,
_giengielde_, to reward, Norse
_gjengjaeld_. _Gen_ is the
same as the _gegn_ in _gegna_, to
suit, _-[g]eld_ can be
either Scand. or Eng. The palatal g
is also Scand. in this word.
The compound gen[*g]eld is
Scand. In Sco. also spelled
gan[*g]eld, gayn[*g]eild.
GER, GAR, vb. to make, cause, force. O.N.
gera (Cl. and V.).
O. Dan. goerae, Sw.
goera, Norse gjera, to do, to make.
O. Nh. goerva. Gar
is the modern form which exhibits
regular Sco. change of er
to ar. Cp. serk, sark;
werk, wark.
GESTNYNG, sb. hospitality. Douglas, III,
315, 8. O.N. gistning,
a passing the night as a guest
at a place, gista, vb. to
spend the night with one,
gestr, guest. O. Dan. gaestning,
O. Sw. gaestning, gistning.
GLETE, GLEIT, vb. to glitter. Douglas,
I, 33; II, 88, 16; Montg.
C. and S., 1288; Dunbar, G.T.,
66. O.N. glita, to glitter,
Dan. glitte. Cp.
Shetland glid, a glittering object. O.E.
glitnian > M.E. glitenien,
as O.E. glisnian > M.E.
glistnian, N. Eng.
glisten. The M.E. glitenian (N.Eng.
*_glitten_) was replaced by
the Scand. glitter.
GLEIT, sb. literally “anything shining,”
used in Palace of Honour,
II, 8, for polish of speech.
See the vb.
GLEY, sb. a look, glance, stare. Mansie
Wauch, 85, 10; 117, 37.
See Wall, gley, to
squint, B-S. glien. Cp. Sw. dial.
glia.
GLEG, adj. sharp. See Wall, deriv. glegly, quickly.
GLITTERIT, adj. full of glitter. Dunbar,
T.M.W., 30. See glitter
in Skeat.
GOWK, sb. a fool. O.N. gaukr, Norse
gaeuk, O. Sw. goeker, Dan.
gjoeg. In Sco.
very frequently spelled goilk, golk.
Cu.
April-gowk, April fool.
GOWL, vb. to scream, yell. O.N. gaula,
Norse gaeula, to yell,
to scream. Shetland gjol,
gol, to howl, seems to be the
same word, but the palatal
before o is strange. Cp. Sco.
gowle.
GOWLYNGE, sb. screaming, howling. R.R.
823, pr. p. of gowl.
Cp. O.N. gaulan,
Norse gaeuling, sb. screaming.
GRAIP, sb. a dung-fork. Burns, 38, 1,
2. Johnnie Gibb, 102, 18;
214, 21. Norse graeip,
id., Dan. greb, a three-pronged
fork.
GRAITH, adj. ready, direct. Bruce, IV,
759; Wallace, V, 76. O.N.
graeiethr, ready, Norse
greid, simple, clear, ready. Deriv.
graithly, directly,
Gol. and Gau. 54. Cp. Yorkshire
graidly, proper.
GRAITH, vb. make ready, dress, furnish, equip.
C.S., 39; R.R.,
424; Psalms XVIII, 32.
O.N. graeietha, to disentangle, set in
order, make ready. Norse
greide, to dress (the hair). Cu.
graitht, dressed.
GRANE, sb. twig, branch. Douglas, II,
10, 27; Dunbar, 76. O.N.
graein, Norse grein,
Dan. gren, O. Sw. gren, branch.
The Dan. and Sw. forms show
monophthongation. The Sco. word
agrees best with the Norse.
GRANIT, adj. forked. Douglas, II, 133,
4. O.N. graeina, to
branch, divide into branches,
separate. Norse graeina, Sw.,
Dan. grena, id., O.
Sw. grenadh, adj. forked, Cu.
grainet.
GRAYTH, GRAITH, sb. equipment, possessions.
Dunbar, 229; Lyndsay,
154, 4753; Burns, 23, 18.
O.N. graeietha, means “tools,
possessions,” originally
“order.” Cp. the vb. In Douglas,
III, 3, 25, graith
means “preparation.”
GRAITHLY, adv. directly, speedily. Bruce,
XIX, 708; X, 205. O.N.
graeiethliga, readily,
promptly.
GRITH, sb. peace, truce. Wallace, X, 884.
O.N., O. Dan. grieth,
truce, protection, peace.
O. Sw. grieth, grueth. Occurs very
often in the parts of the
A-S. Chronicle dealing with the wars
with the Danes, for the first
time in 1002. “Frieth and grieth,”
meant “truce,”
or “peace and protection.” See Steenstrup’s
discussion of these words,
pp. 245-250.
GROUF, on growfe, adj. prone, on one’s
face. Douglas, IV, 20, 24;
Dunbar, 136, 12. O.N.
a grufu, grovelling. Norse aa gruva,
id., O. Sw. a gruvo.
Sw. diall. gruva, a gruv, Dan. paa
gru.
GRYS, GRYCE, sb. a pig. Douglas, II, 143,
14; Lyndsay, 218, 300;
Montg., F., 88. O.N.
griss, a young pig, swine, O. Dan.
gris, Norse gris.
GUKK, vb. to act the fool. Dunbar, F.,
497. Probably to be derived
from gowk, sb. a fool.
It cannot very well come from geck,
to jest, the vowels do not
correspond. In Poet. R., 108, 5,
gukit means “foolish,
giddy.”
GYLL, sb. cleft, glen, ravine. Douglas,
III, 148, 2; Sat. P., 12,
71. O.N. gil,
a narrow glen with a stream at the bottom,
Norse gil, gyl,
a mountain ravine. Cp. Cu. gill,
ghyll.
GYLMYR, sb. a ewe in her second year.
C.S., 66. O.N. gymbr,
a ewe lamb a year old, also
gymbr-lamb, Norse gymber,
Dan. gimber, M.E. gimbir,
gimbyr, Cu. gimmer. In
northwestern England and Scotland
assimilation of mb to
mm took place.
Our word has excrescent l, cp. chalmer,
not uncommon.
GYRTH, sb. a sanctuary, protection. Bruce,
IV, 47; II, 44; C.S.,
115. O.N. grieth,
a sanctuary, a truce. O. Sw. grieth, grueth,
M.Norse gred, protection.
Cu. gurth, cp. grith.
GYRTH sb. a hoop for a barrel, the barrel.
R.R., 27, 81. O.N.
gjoereth, a girdle,
a hoop, Dan. gjord, Norse gjord,
gjaar, gjoir,
hoop, girdle, O.E. form gyrd. Cp.
O.N.
giretha, to gird, and
girethi, wood for making hoops.
GYRTHYN, sb. saddle-strap, saddle-band.
Wyntoun, VIII, 36, 64.
O.N. gjoereth.
See Skeat, girth. Our word is not nominative
pl. as the editor of Wyntoun
takes it, but is the singular
originally pr. p. of girth,
to gird, to strap. In Poet. R.
113, occurs the form girthing.
Cp. Cu. girting,
girtings.
HAILSE, vb. to greet, salute. Bruce, II,
153; C.S., 141. O.N.
helsa, older haeilsa,
to hailsay one, to greet, O. Sw.
helsa, Dan. hilse,
Norse helsa, id., M.E. hailsen.
This word is entirely different
from O.E. healsian, which is
heals + ian
and meant “beseech, implore,” literally
“embrace.”
The form of this was halsian in O. Nhb., from
which Sco. hawse, to
embrace.
HAILSING, HALSING, sb. a salute, greeting.
Douglas, II, 243, 31;
Dunbar “Freires of Berwick”
57; Rosw. and Lill. 589. O.N.,
O. Sw., Norse helsa,
see above; Norse helsing, Dan.
hilsning, a greeting.
Hailsing formed direct from the vb.
hailse.
HAINE, vb. to protect, save. Fergusson,
171; Psalms LXXVIII, 50;
LXXX, 19; we’re hain’d,
we are saved. O.N. hegna, to hedge
in, protect, hegnaethr,
defence, Norse hegna, Dan. hegne,
O. Sw. haeghna, to
hedge in for the sake of protecting. Cu.
hain.
HAINED, pp. adj. sheltered, secluded, cp. a
hained rig, Burns,
8, 1. In modern usage
very frequently means “saved up,
hoarded,” so hained
gear, hoarded money. See haine above.
HAININ’ TOWER, sb. fortress. Psalms
XVIII, 2; XXXI, 2; LXII, 7.
See hain.
HALING (h[-e]ling), pr. p. pouring down.
Douglas, II, 47, 31. O.N.
hella, to pour out
water, helling, sb. pouring. See Wall
under hell. We
should expect a short vowel as generally in
Eng. diall. The form
hale, however, occurs in Yorkshire too.
Both are from O.N. hella.
There is no Scand. or L.G. word
with original a to
explain hale, but cp. the two words
dwell and wail,
to choose. Dwell from O.N. dvelja,
preserves both quality and
quantity of the original vowel. The
Sco. form is, however, dwall.
Here the vowel has been opened
according to Sco. tendency
of changing e to a before
liquids, cp. felag
> falow, also frequently before other
consonants. Cp. the same
tendency in certain dialects in
America, so t[)a]ll
or even t[-ae]l for tell, b[)a]ll for
bell, w[)a]ll
for well, etc. If e before
l in
hell, to pour, was
changed to a, as e in dwell, and
later lengthened, we would
have the form h[-ae]l out of which
hale would be regularly
developed, and so a double
development from the same
word, hell and hale. Wail, to
choose, might be explained
in the same way from O.N. vb.
velja. Well
would be the regular form, but this is not
found. The O.N. val,
choice, is, however, sufficient to
explain wail.
HAME-SUCKEN, sb. the crime of assaulting a
person within his own
house. O.N. haeim-sokn,
O. Dan. hem-sokn, an attack on
one’s house. O.
Sw. hem-sokn, O.E. hamsocn, E. ham-socne.
See Steenstrup, pp. 348-349.
The word seems to have come into
Eng. during the time of the
Danes in England, though both
elements are Eng. as well
as Scand. See Kluge, P.G.(2)I, 933.
HAMMALD, adj. domestic. Douglas, II, 26,
7. O.N. heimoll,
heimill, domestic,
O. Sw. hemoll, Norse heimholt.
Excrescent d after
l quite common in Scand. and appears
in Sco. in a few words.
See fald.
HANK, sb. thread as it comes from the measuring
reel, a coil of
thread. Burns, 584.
See Skeat. Cu. hankle, to entangle, is
probably the same word.
HANSEL, sb. gift. O.N. handsal.
Bruce, V, 120, hansell used
ironically means “defeat.”
See Skeat.
HARN, sb. brain. O.N. hjarni, brain,
O. Dan. hiaern[e,], Norse
hjarne, Dan. hjerne,
O. Sw. hiaerne, haerne.
HARSK, adj. harsh, cruel. Wyntoun, IX,
1, 27; Douglas, II, 208,
17. O.N. *_harsk_, bitter,
as proved by Shetland, ask,
hask, hosk,
and Norse hersk. Cp. Dan. harsk.
O. Ic.
herstr, bitter, hard,
severe, is probably the same word,
st to sk.
Cp. Cu. hask weather, dry weather.
Shetland,
hoski wadder, dry and
windy weather (Jakobson, p. 68). Dan.
dial. harsk, bitter,
dry. For dropping of r, as in the
Shetland form, cp. kask,
from karsk, in “Havelok,” cited
in Skeat’s list.
HARSKNESS, sb. harshness. Dunbar, 104, 19. See harsk.
HARTH, adj. hard. Dunbar, F., 181; O.N.
harethr, Norse har(d),
Dan. haar(d), hard.
HAUGH, sb. a hill, a knoll. O.N. haugr,
a hill, Norse haug,
Old Gutnic haugr, Cu.
howe. The O. Sw. hoegher, O. Dan.
hoeg, hoew,
Dan. hoei, Shetland hjog, hoeg,
show later
monophthongation. Cp.
M.E. hou[*g], hogh.
HAVER-MEAL, sb. oat-meal. Burns, 187,
32, 1. Cp. Norse,
havremjoel, O.N. hafrmjoel,
Dan. havre meel. The first
element of the compound is
used especially in Scand.
settlements in England and
is probably due to Scand.
influence. An O.S. hafore
exists, but if our word is native,
it ought to be distributed
in South Eng. diall. as well. The
second element of the compound
may be Eng.
HAYND, sb. Douglas, III, 119, 6. See aynd.
HEID, sb. brightness. Rolland, I, 122.
O.N. haeieth, brightness of
the sky, haeieth ok solskin,
brightness and sunshine, haeietha,
to brighten, haeiethbjartr,
serene. Cp. heieths-ha-rann, the
high hall of brightness, an
O. poetical name for heaven. The
Norse adj. heid, bright,
like the Sco. word, shows change of
eth to d.
HENDIR, adj. past, bygone. Bruce, 10,
551. Dunbar’s poem, This
hendir Night. O.N.
endr, formerly. Cp. ender-day in
Skeat’s list.
HETHING, sb. scorn, mockery. Wyntoun,
IX, 10, 92; Wallace, V, 739;
Douglas, II, 209, 7.
O.N. h[’ae]ething, sb. scoffing, scorn,
h[’ae]etha, to
scoff, to mock, Norse, haeding, scorn, mockery,
O. Sw. haedha, hoedha.
HING, vb. to hang. Lindsay, 527, 4033;
Gol. and Gaw., 438; Psalms
LXIX, 6. Same as Cu.
hing, for which see Wall.
HOOLI, HULIE, adj. quiet, slow, leisurely,
careful. Dalr., I, 149,
27; A.P.B., 41; Fergusson,
54. O.N., hogligr, easy, gentle,
hogleiki, meekness,
hoglifi, a quiet life, hoglyndr,
good-natured.
HUGSUM, adj. horrible. Wyntoun, VII, 5, 176. See ug, to fear.
HUSBAND, sb. a small farmer. Bruce, X,
387; VII, 151. O.N. hus-
bondi, a house-master.
See Skeat. For full discussion of this
word as well as bonde,
see Steenstrup, 97-100.
ILL, adj. evil, wicked. Bruce, III, 10.
O.N. illr, adj. bad,
Norse ill, idl,
cross, angry, Dan. ilde, adv. badly. As
an adv. common in M.E.
The adj. use of it more specifically
Sco. as in Norse. See
Skeat.
IRKE, vb. to weary, to suffer. Dunbar,
F., 429; R.R., 456; L.L.,
2709. O.N. yrkja,
to work, take effect, O. Sw. yrkja,
O. Dan. yrki (Schlyter),
Sw. yrke, to urge, enforce, Norse
orka, be able, always
used in the sense of “barely being
able to,” or, with the
negative, “not being able to.” Ramsay
uses the word in the sense
of “being vexed.”
IRKE, adj. weary, lazy. Dunbar, 270, 36;
R.R., 3570. See irke,
vb. Irkit, pp. adj.
tired, Montg., M.P., 521.
IRKING, sb. delay. Winyet, II, 76; I. Deriv. from irke, vb.
ITHANDLY, YTHANDLY, YDANLIE, adv. busily, assiduously.
Dalr., II,
36, 12; R.R., 36, 95.
O.N. iethinn, busy. See eident.
KARPING, CARPING, sb. speech, address.
Wyntoun, VIII, 18, 85;
VIII, 18, 189; IX, 9, 34.
See carp.
KEIK, KEK, vb. to peep, to pry. O.N. kikja,
to pry, Norse
kika. Undoubtedly
a Scand. loan-word, i>ei as in gleit,
gley.
KENDLE, KENDILL, KENNLE, vb. to kindle.
Lyndsay, 161, 4970; Gol.
and Gaw., 1221; Rolland, I,
609. O.N. kendill, kynda, M.E.
kindlen. See Brate.
KILT, vb. to tuck up, O.N. kelta, kjalta,
O. Dan. kiltae, the
lap, Dan., Norse kilte,
to tuck up, O. Sw. kilta, sb. For
discussion of this word see
Skeat.
KIST, KYST, sb. chest, box. O.N. kista,
Norse, Dan. kiste,
a chest. O.E. cest
would have given kest, or chest.
See
also Curtis, Sec.392.
The tendency in Sco. is to change i to
e before st,
not e to i. Cp. restit, gestning.
KITTLING, KITTLEN, sb. kitten. Burns,
38, 2, 3; Mansie Wauch, 23,
19; 210, 10. O.N. ketlingr,
diminutive of ketta, she-cat,
Norse kjetling.
Cp. Cu. kitlin. The same diminutive
formation appears in Dan.
kylling, older kykling, Norse
kjukling, a chicken.
KNUSE, KNOOSE, vb. to bruise, to press down
with the knees, to
beat, also to knead.
Ramsay, I, 236. See Jamieson for
secondary meanings. O.N.
knusa, to bruise, to beat, Norse
knusa, Dan. knuse,
crush, O. Sw. knosa, knusa, crush,
press tight, beat. Cp.
Goth. knusian. O.E. cnysian, shows
umlaut.
KOW, sb. a fright, terror. Winyet, I,
107, 12. O.N. kuga, to
cow. See cow,
vb.
LACK, vb. to belittle, blame, reproach, despise.
Mont., M.P., 43,
17; R.R., 3242; 3517; Gau.,
17, 25. O.N. hlakka, to look
down upon, O. Dan. lakke,
to slander, O. Sw. belacka, id.
See lak, sb.
LAICHING, sb. sport, play. R.R., 647.
From Sco. vb. laike, to
play, O.N. laeika.
See lak.
LAIF, LAVE, sb. the rest. O.N. laeif,
a leaving, pl. laeifar,
remnants, Norse leiv,
id., loyva, to leave. Cannot come
from O.E. l[-a]f.
See Sec.20.
LAIGH, adj. low. Ramsay, II, 20; Mansie
Wauch, 106, 23. Same as
Eng. low, from O.N.
lagr, O. Sw. lagher, O. Dan. lagh,
lag, low. In Eng.,
O.N. ag > [o,]w > ow. In
Scotland
ag > aw, did
not become ow later. So the regular Sco.
form is law, or, with
guttural, lawch. In laigh,
however, a has developed
as a would when not before g or
h. The form logh
also occurs. In Dunbar occur low,
law, laich,
and loigh.
LAIGH, vb. to bend down, to kneel. Psalms
XCV, 6. See laigh,
adj.
LAIKE, sb. the stake for which one plays.
Montg., C., I, 109. O.N.
laeikr, a play, Norse
leik, O. Dan. legh. Also means play
in Sco., but the transferred
meaning is common. It cannot come
from O.E. l[-a]c.
The e-vowel in Cu., Westm., and S.
Scotland proves an original
aei-diphthong. See Part I, Sec.16.
LAIRET, adj. bemired. Psalms LXIX, 2.
Norse laeir, clay. Dan.
dial. ler, O. Sw. leer,
ler, id., Eng. dial. lair. See
Wall. Jamieson gives
lair, vb. to stick in the mire, lair,
sb. a bog, lairy, adj.
boggy.
LAIRING, sb. gutter, deep mud. Burns,
10, 11. O.N. laeir, clay.
Same as Yorkshire lyring,
for which see Wall. Lyring seems
to show original E. Scan.
monophthongation of aei to e.
LAIT, sb. manner, trick. R.R., 273, 25,
36. O.N., Ic. lat,
manners, skipta litum ok
latum, change shape and manners.
O. Sw. lat, manner,
way of proceeding. Cp. O.N. lata-laeti,
dissimulation, latbrageth,
gestures, and Dan. lade, to
dissimulate, pretend.
Norse lata, id. Probably related to
O.N. lat.
LAYKING, sb. jousting, a tournament. Wyntoun,
VIII, 35. See
laik.
LAK, sb. a plaything. Wallace, VIII, 1410.
Norse leik, a game,
leiker (pl.), games,
toys. Sw. dial. leika, a doll, a play
sister. Cp. Cu.
lakin, a child’s toy.
LAK, sb. contempt, reproach, disgrace.
Rolland, I, 455; Rosw. and
Lill., 784; R.R., 3092.
O.N. lakr, defective, O. Dan. lak,
fault, deficiency. Sw.
lack, fault, slander. O. Sw.
lakkare, a slanderer.
Cp. Dan. lakkeskrift, a satirical
piece. See lack,
vb.
LEISTER, sb. a three-pronged salmon spear.
Burns, 16, 1. Dumfries
and Ayr., any spear for striking
or spearing fish with. O.N.
ljostr, a salmon spear.
Norse ljoster, ljoster, Dan.
lyster, Sw. ljuster,
vb. Ljostra, vb. in Norse, to spear
fish. Cu. lister,
leester. See also Worsaae, p. 260.
Vb.
leister in Sco., to
strike fish with a spear or leister.
LINK, vb. to walk briskly, smartly. Burns,
1291, 6, 5, 2. Norse
linke, to hurry along,
cp. Sw., Dan. linke, to limp along.
Stevenson in Ille Terrarum
6, 3, uses link in the sense of
“walking along leisurely,”
which is nearer the Dan. meaning of
the word.
LIRK, vb. to crease, to rumple, shrivel.
Ramsay, I, 307. O.N.
lerka, to lace tight,
lirk, sb. a crease, a fold.
LIPIN, LIPPEN, vb. to trust. R.R., 3501;
Psalms, XVIII, 30, etc.
O.N. litna (?), very
doubtful. See B-S.
LITE, vb. to dye, to stain. Dalr., I,
48, 24; Douglas, IV, 190,
32. O.N. lita,
to dye, Shetland, to litt. See Wall.
LITLING, sb. dyeing. Sat. P., 48, 1. See lit.
LOFT, sb. upper room, gallery. O.N. lopt,
Norse loft, Aberdeen
laft. See Skeat.
LOFT, vb. to equip with a loft. C.S., 96. See loft, sb.
LOKMEN, sb. pl. executioners. Wallace,
134. O. Dan., O. Sw.
lagman. O.N. loegmaethr,
literally “the law-man,” was the
speaker of the law. In
Iceland, particularly, the loegmaethr
was the law-speaker.
In Norway a loegman seems also to have
meant a country sheriff or
officer, which comes closer to the
use in Wallace. A little
doubtful.
LOPPRIT, pp. clotted. Douglas, II, 157,
28; III, 306, 4. O.N.
hlaupa (of milk), to
curdle (of blood), to coagulate. So
Norse lopen, lopen
(from laeupa, loypa), thick,
coagulated. Dan. at
loebe sammen, to curdle, loebe, make
curdle, loebe, sb.
curdled milk. O.N. hloeypa mjolk, id.,
literally “to make milk
leap together.” O. Sw. loepa.
In Cu.
milk is said to be loppert
when curdled.
LOUN, LOWN, adj. quiet, calm, sheltered.
O.N. logn, O. Sw.
lughn. See Wall
under lownd.
LOUP, LOWP, vb. to leap, to jump. O.N.
hlaupa, to leap, Norse
laeupa, run, O. Sw.
loepa, Dan. loebe. Cp. Cu.
lowpy-
dike, a husband
of unfaithful habits, and the secondary
meanings of Norse laupa
given in Aasen.
LOUP, LOWP, sb. a jump, a spring. Bruce,
VI, 638; X, 414; Sco.
Pro. 3. See the verb.
LOUSE, LOWSE, adj. loose, free, unfettered.
Wyntoun, IX, 2, 63;
Douglas, I, 95, 9; I, 95,
23. O.N. lauss, Norse laeus,
loose. See Wall.
Sco. to be louse, to be abroad, about.
The
Norse word is similarly used.
Cp. Germ. los, and Dan. loes.
Waddell has the word godlowse,
godless.
LOUSE, LOWSE, vb. to make loose, release.
C.S., 121; Lyndsay, 460,
232; K.Q., 34. O.N. lauss.
The O.N. vb. was loysa. See
louse, adj.
LOW, vb. to humble. R.R., 148. Same
as Eng. to lower. So in Sco.
to hey, to heighten.
LOW, vb. to flame, to flare up, kindle.
Dunbar, G.T., 45; Ramsay,
II, 17; Psalms, LXXVI.
O.N. l[o,]ga, to burn with a flame,
Norse l[o,]ga, laaga,
to blaze, but cp. the Sco. sb.
lowe.
LOWE, sb. flame. O.N. l[o,]gi, Norse laage. See Skeat.
LOWNE, vb. to shelter. Bruce, XV, 276;
M.E. lounen, to shelter.
See lowne, adj.
Douglas, II, 236, 31, lownit, pp. serene,
tranquil.
LUCK, vb. to succeed. Montg., C., 643.
O.N. lukka, reflexive, to
succeed (bene succedere, Haldorson),
lukka, sb. luck. O. Sw.
lukka, loecka
and lykka. In Scand. dial. the latter
umlauted form only is found
for the vb., but Norse sb.
lukka, Dan. sb. lykke.
Undoubtedly Norse influence in Sco.
LUCKEN, vb. to give luck, cause to succeed.
Sco. formation from
luck. Cp. slok
and sloken.
LUFE, LOOF, sb. the palm of the hand.
O.N lofi, the hollow of
the hand, the palm, Norse
love, id., Sw. dial. love.
LUG, sb. the ear. See Skeat and Wall.
Cp. Norse lugga, to pull,
and lug as a sb. originally
“that which is pulled.” In Cu.
lug means “the
handle of a pail.” Compare the Eng. to lug,
to carry.
LYTHE, vb. to listen. Dunbar, 192, I.
O.N. hlyetha, to listen,
Dan. lytte, O. Sw.
lyÞa, id.
MAIK, sb. companion, partner, consort.
Dunbar, T.M.W., 32;
Philotus, 2. O.N. maki,
partner, an equal, Norse make,
Dan. mage, O. Sw. maki,
M.E. make, consort, partner.
MAIKLESS, adj. without peer. Wyntoun,
IX, Prol. 48; Montg. “The
Lady Margaret Montgomery,”
8. O.N. maki + laus, Norse
makalaeus, Dan. mageloes,
extraordinary.
MAUCH, adj. full of maggots. Dunbar, F.,
241. O.N. maethkr,
a maggot, W.Norse, with assimilation,
makk, E. Norse mark,
Dan. madik, Sw. dial.
mark, O. Sw. matk, and madhker.
The k is a diminutive
ending, cp. Eng. moth < O.E. maetha.
In the Sco. word eth
fell out and a was lengthened for
compensation. Cp.
Cu. mawk, a midge, Eng. dial. mawkish.
Skeat cites Eng. dial. form
mad.
MELDER, sb. flour, meal just ground. Burns,
127, 113. O.N.
meldr, flour, or corn
in the mill, Norse melder, wheat
about to be ground, or flour
that has just been ground,
melderlas, a load of
wheat intended for the mill,
meldersekk, a bag of
flour. Cp. Cu. melder, the quantity
of meal ground at one time.
MENSE, vb. to do grace to. Lyndsay, 529.
See mensk, sb. The
change of sk to s
is characteristic of Sco. See mensk.
MENSEDOM, sb. wisdom. Psalms, CV, 22. See mensk.
MENSK, MENSE, sb. proper conduct, more generally
honor. Dunbar,
T.M.W., 352; Wyntoun, VIII,
42, 143; Burns, 90, 1. O.N.
mennska. For discussion
of this word see Wall. Deriv.
menskless, menskful,
menskly.
MIDDING, MYDDING, sb. a midden. C.S.,
12; Lyndsay, 216, 269. Dan.
moedding, older moeghdyngh,
O.N. mykidyngja, Sw. dial.
moedding, Cu. middin.
MON, MAN, MAUN, vb. must, O.N. monu
(munu), will, shall, Norse
mun, will, but used
variously. Dan. monne, mon, as an
auxiliary vb. used very much
like do in Eng. Sw. man, Cu.
mun. The form
of the Sco. word is the same in all persons.
So in Norse.
MYTH, vb. to mark, recognize. Wallace,
V, 664; Douglas, I, 28, 26.
O.N. mietha, to show,
to mark a place, Norse mida, mark a
place, mid sb. a mark
by which to find a place. O.E.
miethan, meant “to
conceal, lie concealed,” same as O.H.G.
midan, vitare, occultare,
Germ. meiden, vermeiden,
avoid.
NEIRIS, sb. pl. the kidneys. C.S., 67.
O.N. nyra, a kidney,
Norse nyra, O. Dan.
nyre, Sw. niura, Sw. dial. nyra,
M.E. nere. Cp.
Sco. eir, an eir, for a neir,
as in
Eng. augur, an augur,
a naugur.
NEVIN, vb. to name. Gol. and Gaw., 506;
Howlate, II, 3, 7. O.N.
nefna, Norse nevna,
Dan. naevne, to name, O.E. namnian.
NIEVE, NEEFE, NEVE, sb. the hand, the fist.
O.N. hnefi, Norse
neve, hand, fist, Shetland
nev, Cu. neif, neive,
neef. Wall considers
this an unrecorded Eng. word, which is
possible. Its general
distribution in Scand. dial. and
elsewhere in Scand. settlements,
as Northern and Central
England, Southern Scotland,
Shetland, etc., as well as its
absence in all other Gmc.
languages, indicates, however, that
the word is Scand. in Eng.
diall.
NOUT, NOWT, sb. cattle. O.N. naut,
cattle, Norse naeut id. Dan.
noed, Sw. noet,
Shetland nod. In M. Sco., also written
nolt.
NYK, NEK, vb. to shake the head in denial of
anything, “to nyk
with nay.” Gol.
and Gaw, 115; Philotus, 32. Norse nikka,
to
bow slightly, nikk,
a slight bow, Sw. neka, to deny, say
no, M.E. nicken.
NYTE, vb. to deny. Gol. and Gaw., 889;
Wyntoun, VIII, 2, 16. O.N.
naeita, to deny, refuse,
Norse neitta, neikta, nekta,
id., neiting, a denial,
neitan, id., Dan. naegte.
ONDING, sb. terror. Psalms, LXXXVIII, 15. See ding.
ONFARRAND, adj. ill-looking. Douglas, III, 250, 26. See farrand.
ON LOFT, adv. up. Gol. and Gaw., 485;
Bruce, XIII, 652. O.N.
a loft, up into the
air. See Skeat aloft. Sco. Pro.
27,
upon loft, up.
ON LOFT, adv. aloud. Dunbar, T.M.W., 338. See above.
OUTWALE, sb. the best, the choice. Lyndsay,
XX, 4. Eng. out +
O.N. val; similar formation
to Norse udvalg, utval.
PIRRYE, sb. whirlwind. Sat. P., I, 178. See bir.
POCKNET, sb. from O.N. poki, pouch and
net, a net.
A Dumfriesshire word.
Not found in any Sco. text but given by
Worsaae, p. 260, and in Jamieson,
where the following
description is given of pocknet
fishing.
This is performed
by fixing stakes or stours, as they are
called, in the
sand either in the channel of a river, or
in the sand which
is dry at low water. These stours are
fixed in a line
across the tideway at a distance of 46
inches from each
other, about three feet high above the
sand, and between
every two of these stours is fixed a
pocknet, tied
by a rope to the top of each stour.”
P. Dorneck, Dumr. Statist.
Acc., II, 1.
QUEY, QUOY, sb. a young cow, a yearling.
Douglas, II, 178, 19; II,
299, 8; Burns, 595. O.N.
Norse kviga, Dan. dial. kvie. Cp.
Shetland hwaei and
kwaei. Cu. why, wheye (guttural
wh).
QUHELM, WHELM, vb. to overturn, to turn upside
down. Douglas, II,
64, 14; II, 264, 16.
Burns, 66, 1, also written quhelme,
whamle, whemle.
In Cu. whemmel, M.E. hw[-e]lmen.
See
Skeat under whelm.
Cp. Norse kvelm and hvelm. The O.N.
hvelfa, N. Norse kvelva,
means “to turn upside down.”
QUYOK, QUYACH, diminutive of quey, q. v.
RA (r[-e]), sb. a sail-yard. Douglas,
II, 274, 16. O.N., Ic. ra,
Dan. raa, Norse raa,
Sw. ra, Shetland roe, a sail-
yard.
RAD, RED, adj. afraid. Bruce, XII, 431;
Dunbar, T. M.W., 320;
Montg. C. and S., 1392.
O.N. hraeddr, timid, frightened,
Norse raedd, Dan. raed,
Sw. raedd, id., M.E. rad. Cp.
O.N. hraeetha, to frighten,
Norse raedda.
RADNESS, sb. timidity, fear. R. R., 1166;
1660. Deriv. from rad,
q.v.
RADEUR, sb. fear. L.L., 1489. Sco.
formation from rad adj.,
afraid. M.E. reddour,
redour is a different word from
O. Fr. reidur, later
roideur, see B-S.
RAGGED, adj. full of rag, ragwort.
Burns, 103, 85. See
ragweed.
RAGWEED, sb. an herb, ragwort. Burns,
6, 5, 9. O.N. roegg, M.E.
ragge for which see
B-S. Cp. Sw. dial. ragg, rogga.
RAISE, RAIZE, vb. to incite, stir up.
Burns, 6, 5, 4; and 7, 1, 1.
Used here as Sco. bait
would be used, otherwise generally as
Eng. raise, from O.N.
raeisa.
RAKE, RAIK (r[-e]k), vb. to go, walk, wander,
also depart. Dunbar,
T. M.W., 524; Gol. and Gaw.,
72; Psalms, XVIII, 10. O.N.
raeika, to wander,
Norse raeka, to wander about aimlessly.
Cp. Cu. rake,
a journey, “He’s teann a rake ower to Kendal.”
See also Wall.
RAMFEEZLED, adj. exhausted, fatigued.
Burns, 42, 1, 3. One of a
number of words in Sco. formed
with ram, cp. ramshackle,
ramstam, rammous,
etc. The second element probably the
same as Eng. fizzle
in the expression to fizzle out, fail,
come to nought. See fizz
in Skeat. See rammys.
RAMMEIST, vb.pret. ran wild, frenzied.
Montg., F., 511. Cp.
rammous adj. Probably
the same used as a vb. Cp. Norse
ramsa, to slash together,
do a thing hurriedly, also to
make a noise.
RAMMYS, RAMMOUS, adj. excited, violent.
R.R., 113. O.N. ramr,
rammr, strong, vehement,
Norse ram, powerful, risky,
hazardous. Cl. and V.
cites the N. Eng. form ram, bitter,
which is the same word.
RAMSTAM, adj. indiscreet, with an idea of rushing
into anything
thoughtlessly. Burns,
32, 22. O.N. rammr, vehement, and
stam, stiff, hard,
unbending. Cp. Cu. ram, strong, and
rammish, violent, and
American slang rambunktious,
obstreperous.
RANEGILL, sb. a scapegrace, a worthless fellow.
Johnnie Gibb, 179,
11. Cp. Norse rangel,
ranglefant, a loafer, rascal.
Doubtful.
RANGALE, sb. rabble, mob. Wyntoun, VIII,
36, 35; Bruce, XII, 474.
O.N. hrang, noise,
tumult, especially the noise a crowd
makes.
RED, vb. to clear away, clear up, set to rights.
R.R., 1242;
Isaiah, LX, 10. O.N.
hryethja, to clear away, Norse rydja,
rydda, Sw. roedja,
Dan. rydde. Cp. Eng. rid, O.
Fr.
hredda, O.E. hreddan,
Norse redda, save, liberate.
Germ. retten is another
word.
RED UP, vb. open up. Isaiah, XL, 3; LXII,
10. O.N. hryethja upp,
Norse rydde op,
clear up. In Ramsay, II, 225, red up
pp. means dressed. See
also Wall under red.
REDDING, sb. growing afraid. Lyndsay, 356, 1263. See rad, red.
REESE, vb. to extol. Ramsay, I, 262.
Eng. raise. See also
raise above, as used
in Burns.
RESTIT (very frequently reestit), adj. dry,
withered. Burns, 6, 5.
Dan. riste, to dry
something over a rist, ristet, dried.
O.N. rist, a gridiron.
Cp. Cu. reestit, rancid, rusty.
RIVE, RYFE, RIF (r[-i]v), vb. to tear, break
open, cleave.
Lyndsay, 434, 156; Wynyet,
II, 6514; Psalms, XXIX, 5. O.N.
rifa, to tear, Norse
riva, reiva, Dan. rive, Sw.
rifwa, M.E. raven
id. Cp. Dunbar, T.M.W., 350, “rif into
sondir,” tear to pieces,
and Norse “rive sonde.” Cu. reavv,
and ryve.
ROCK, sb. a loom, spinning wheel, spinning
distaff. Lyndsay, 109,
3330; Burns, 223, 112, 3;
240, 148, 1. O.N. rokkr, a loom,
Norse rokk, Dan. rok,
spinning wheel.
ROCKING, sb. “a chat, a friendly visit
at which they would spin on
the rock which the visitor
carried along with her” (Wagner).
Burns, 4, 28. See rock.
ROVE, RUFE, sb. rest, repose. Montg.,
M.P., VI, 20; Scott, 62, 19.
O.N. ro, Norse, Dan.
ro, quiet, rest, Orm. ro (see
Brate). Final epenthetic
v also occurs in other words in
Sco. Cp. qhwov
for qwho, cruive, besides crue, etc.
ROWSTE, vb. “to cry with a rough voice.”
Douglas, III, 304, 11.
O.N. raust, the voice.
Dan. roest, Sw. roest, Norse
ryest. Cp.
O.N. rausa, to talk loud or fast. Shetland
ruz (Cl. and V.).
The Sco. vb. seems to be formed from a sb.
rowste, which occurs
in Orm.
ROWT, ROUT, vb. to cry out, roar. Lyndsay,
538, 4353; Montg., F.,
501; Rolland, IV, 406.
O.N. rauta, O. Ic. r[o,]uta, to
roar, to bellow, Norse rauta,
raeuta, Sw. dial. roeta, id.
The Sw. word exhibits the
E. Scand. monophthongation, which
took place in Dan. about 900.
ROWT, sb. loud clamor. Poet. R.,
157; Ramsay, I, 251. See vb.
rowt.
RUCKLE, RICLE, sb. a little heap of anything.
Lyndsay, 539, 4356;
Burns, 596; M.W., 114, 3.
See Wall under rook. Ruckle is
the form of the word in Edinburgh
dial. May be Eng. Skeat
considers Eng. ruck
Scand. and rick Eng., but in Scotland
the one may be simply a variant
of the other, not necessarily
a doublet. Cp. fill
and full.
RUIK, a heap. Lyndsay, 454, 2079; 494, 3075.
Spelled ruck, meaning
“a cock of hay,”
in Ramsay’s “The Gentle Shepherd,”
160. See
Wall, under rook.
Cp. Cu. ruck, the chief part, the
majority.
ROOP AND STOOP. Ramsay, II, 527; M.W. 203, 8;
214, 5. Cp. rubb og
stubb, every particle.
Aasen defines “loest og fast, smaat og
stort, selja rubb og stubb,”
sell everything, dispose of all
one has; literally “stump
and piece,” “rump and stump.”
Used
exactly the same way in Sco.
Of very frequent occurrence in
this sense in Norway.
RUND, ROOND, ROON, sb. the border of a web,
the edge. Burns, 596.
O.N. rond, rim, border,
Dan. rand, a line, seam, the
border, Norse rand,
rond, a streak, seam, edge, border.
Cp. Cu. randit,
streaked, Norse randet, id.
RUNSIK, vb. to ransack. Wallace, VII,
120. O.N. rannsaka, to
search a house, Norse ransaka,
from ran, house, and
saka, soeka,
seek. See Skeat, and Kluge and Lutz.
RUSARE, sb, a flatterer. R.R., 3356. See ruse.
RUSE, ROOSE, RUSS (r[-u]s), vb. to praise,
to boast, pride
oneself. Douglas, II,
57, 8; Rolland, I, 389; R.R., 2823. O.N.
rosa, older hrosa,
to praise, Norse rosa, Dan. rose,
Sw. rosa, M.E. (h)_rosen_,
Lincolnshire rose, reouse,
Cu. roose.
RUSE, sb. praise, a boast. Dunbar, T.
M.W., 431; Sat. P., 12, 17.
O.N. hros, praise,
Norse, Dan. ros.
SAIKLESS, adj. innocent. Lyndsay, 545,
4563. O.N. saklauss, O.E.
sacl[-e]as. The
O.E. word is a loan-word from O. Nh. See
Steenstrup, 210-211.
In modern Eng. dial. the form is
generally sackless.
SAIKLESSNESS, sb. innocence, innocency.
Psalms, XXVI, 6, 11;
LXXIII, 13. See saikless.
SAIT, sb. session, court. Dunbar, 79,
41. O.N. s[’ae]ti, seat,
sitting, Norse saete,
id. See Skeat under seat.
SAUCHT, adj. reconciled, also at ease, undisturbed,
tranquil.
Bruce, N, 300; Douglas, II,
91, 22. O.E. saht, borrowed from
O.N. See Kluge, P.G.(2)I,
934. For discussion of O.E.
seht and sehtian
see Steenstrup, 181-182. In Howlate, III,
16, sacht vb. pret.,
made peace.
SAY, sb. a milk-pail, also tub. Jamieson,
Dumfries. O.N. sar,
a large cask, Norse saa,
a pail, a water-bucket, a wooden
tub, Dan. saa, vandsaa,
waterpail, Sw. sa, id.
SCAIT, sb. the skate fish. Dunbar, 261,
9. O.N. skata, Norse
skata, the skate, M.E.
scate. Ir. scat, sgat, id.,
is
a loan-word from O.N. (Cp.
Craigie, p. 163). O.N. sk becomes
quite regularly sg
in Ir. and Gael. Cp. also sgeir <
skar. Cu. skeatt
exhibits regular i-fracture from older
a.
SCAITH, SCATH, vb. to injure. Bruce, IV,
363; XII, 392; R. R.,
1323. Not from O. Nhb.
sceethetha, but from O.N. skaetha, Norse
skade, with which the
vowel corresponds.
SCAR, sb. a precipitous bank of earth, a bare
place on the side of
a steep hill, a cliff.
Ramsay, II, 205; Burns, 10, 11. Also
written skard, scair,
scaur. O.N. sker, a skerry, an
isolated rock in the sea.
Norse skjaer, a projecting cliff,
a bank of rocky ground, Dan.
skjaer, skaer, a rock in the
water near the land, Sw. skaer,
M.E. sker, scerre. Cp.
Cu. skerr, a precipice.
The fundamental idea is “something
cut apart, standing by itself.”
Root the same as in the Norse
skera, to cut, Eng.
shear and shore, sea-shore. Cp.
the O.E. vb. scorian
cited by Sweet.
SCARTH, sb. the cormorant. Dunbar, T.M.W.,
92; F., 194; Douglas,
I, 46, 15. O.N. skarfr,
Norse skarv, cormorant. Shetland,
scarf.
SCHOIR, sb. a threat, menace. Bruce, VI,
621; Gol. and Gaw., 103.
B-S. derive from O. Sw. skorra,
O.N. skera.
SCOL, vb. to wish one health, an expression
used in drinking, just
as the Norse skaal
is used. Montg. S., 69, 13. O.N. skal,
Norse skaal, a drinking
cup. Cp. Sco. skull, a goblet.
Ir.-Gael. scala, sgaile,
a beaker, is a Norse loan-word
(Craigie).
SCOUG, scog, vb. to shelter. M.W., 20,
19; Isaiah, XVIII, 6. O.N.
skuggi, shade, Norse
skugge, to shade, Sw. skugga, sb.,
Dan. skygge, to shade.
Spelled scug also in Sco.
SCRATCH, sb. an hermaphrodite. Jamieson.
O.N. skratti, a
monster. This form exists
in Yorkshire, otherwise the form in
Eng. dial. is scrat.
See Wall.
SCRIP, a coarse or obscene gesture. Wallace,
VI, 143. Probably from
O.N. skripi. Cp.
skripatal, scurrilous language,
skripalaeti, buffoonery,
scurrilous gestures. With the Sco.
word cp. the Norse skripa,
vb., skripa, sb. f., and Ic.
skripr, sb. m.
See Aasen.
SCUD, vb. to hurry away, hasten on. Burns,
55, 1, 4. Eng. scud
Skeat derives from Dan. skyde,
Sw. skutta. The Sw. form is
nearest, the Dan. form shows
umlaut. The corresponding O.E.
word is sc[-e]otan.
SCUDLER, a male kitchen servant. Wallace, 5,
10, 27. Cp. O.N.
skutilsvaeinn, a page
at a royal table. Skutil is the same
as O.E. scutel, a dish,
a trencher. In O.N. it means also
“a small table.”
The unpalatalized sc, as well as the usage,
would indicate that the word
is a loan-word.
SEIR, SER, adj. various, separate. Rolland,
Prol., 295; R.R., 990;
“Freires of Berwick,”
321. O.N. ser, for oneself,
separately. Originally
the dative of the refl. pron., but used
very frequently as an adverb.
SEMELEY, adv. proper, looking properly.
Wallace, I, 191; Wyntoun,
IX, 26, 53. Seimly,
semely-farrand, good-looking,
handsome, also means “in
proper condition.” Redundant, since
semely and farrand
in Sco. mean the same. O.N. saemiligr.
See Skeat.
SHACKLET, adj. crooked, distorted. Burns,
322, I, 7. O.N.
skakkr, skew, wry,
distorted, skakki-fotr, wry leg, Norse
skakk, crooked, so
Sw. dial. skak, Dan. skak, slanting.
The palatal sh is unusual,
but cp. dash from daska.
Norse words generally preserve
sk in all positions, genuine
Eng. words do not. See
Part I, 12 and 13.
SHIEL, sb. shelter, protection. Burns,
226, 119, 3. O.N, skjol,
shelter, cover, refuge, Norse
skjul, skjol, pron. shul,
shol, Dan. skjul,
id., skjule, to conceal. Shielin,
sb. shelter, may be formed
from the vb.
SHORE, vb. to threaten. Ramsay, I, 261.
Origin rather doubtful.
Has been considered Scand.
See schoir.
SIT (s[-i]t), vb. to grieve. Wallace,
I, 438. O.N. syta, Norse
syta, to care.
See syte, sb.
SITEFULL, adj. sorrowful, distressing.
Douglas, I, 40, 19. Cp.
Norse suteful.
See syte, sb.
SKAIL, SKALE, SCALE, vb. to scatter, disperse,
dismiss, part,
leave. A very common
word. O.N. skilja, separate, O. Dan.
skiliae, Norse, skilja,
Dan. skille, Sw. dial. skila.
The long vowel is unusual.
Cp. skeely in N. Sco. from O.N.
skilinn. The same
change of i to an e-vowel is observed in
gleit and quey.
SKAIL, sb. a storm, a strong wind that “skails.”
Isaiah, XXVIII,
2. See skail,
vb.
SKATH, SKAITH, SCAITH, sb. harm, misery.
O.N. skaethi, harm,
damage, Norse skade,
id., Dan. skade, O.E. sceaetha.
SKANT, sb. want, poverty. Burns, 290,
I, 3. O.N. skammt. See
Skeat. Cp. skerum
skamti, in short measure.
SKANTLIN, sb. little. Burns, 5, 5, 7.
As adv. generally
skantlins, scantlings,
scarcely. O.N. skamt.
SKANTLY, adv. with difficulty, hardly. C.S., 69. See skant.
SKAR, sb. a scarecrow, a fright. Lyndsay,
437, 1633. From vb.
skar, to frighten,
Eng. scare, M.E. skerren. O.N.
skirra. See Skeat.
SKEIGH, adj. originally meant timid, then very
frequently, dainty,
nice, finally, proud.
Dunbar, T.M.W., 357. Burns, 193, 46, I.
Norse sky, Dan. sky,
adj. and also vb. sky, to avoid.
B-S. compares Sw. skygg
also, which is the same word, but
the vowel is long. The
Sco. word, furthermore, seems to
suggest an older diphthong.
It could, however, not be O.E.
sceah, which gave M.E.
scheah and should have become
schee in N. Sco.
Doubtful.
SKER, adj. timid, easily frightened. Dunbar,
T.M.W., 357; Lyndsay,
227, 126. O.N. skjarr,
shy, timid, Sw. dial. skar, M.E.
scer, Cu. scar,
wild.
SKEWYT, vb. pret. turned obliquely. Wallace,
IX, 148. O.N.
skaeifr, O. Ic. skeifr,
oblique, Norse skaeiv, skjaiv,
crooked, Dan. skjaev.
The Dan word exhibits monophthongation
of aei to ae
(not to e, i, as in sten).
SKILL, sb. motive, reason. Gol. and Gaw.,
147; Bruce, I, 214, 7.
See Skeat, and Kluge and Lutz.
In Dunbar, 307, 63, “did nane
skill,” did not do a
wise thing.
SKOG, SCOUG, sb. place of retreat, shelter,
protection. Dalr.,
I, 30, 29; Isaiah, XXXII,
2. O.N. skuggi, shade, Norse
skugge, O. Sw. skuggi.
SKOGY, adj. shady. Douglas, III, 1, 21, 16. See scoug.
SKRECH, SKRIK, sb. a scream, yell. C.S.,
39; Rolland, IV, 336.
O.N. Norse skrik,
a cry, a yell, skrikja, vb. Dan.
skrig. Cu. skrike
to scream. Eng. shriek < O.E.
*_scrician_.
SKRYP, sb. bag. Dunbar, F., 509.
O.N. skreppa, a bag, Norse
skreppa, Dan. skreppe,
Sw. skraeppa, id.
SKUGG, sb. a shadow. Dunbar, III, 24,
12. O.N. skuggi. See
skog. Cp. skog,
vb. to hide. Isaiah, XXVIII, 15.
SKYLE, vb. to hide, cover. Jamieson, quotation
from Henryson. O.N.
skjula, O. Ic. skjola,
to screen, shelter, Norse skjula,
Dan. skjul, Sw. skyla,
Fer. sk[~y]la, Shetland skail,
skol, cover, protect.
Our word corresponds most closely to
the Fer. word. Both are
developed out of O.N. skjula. Cp.
O.N. mjukr > meek,
in standard Eng. Norse skjula has
preserved the original unumlauted
vowel. The O.N. word was
pronounced sk-iula
or sk-jula. Cp. skjenka, which is
N. Norse dial. sheinka.
From skj developed sh in
shielin.
SKYRIN, adj. shining, conspicuous because of
brightness, showy.
Burns, 210, 87, 3. O.N.
skirr, clear, bright, skira, to
make clear, skyra,
to purify. (Cp. Norse skjerr-torsdag,
O.N. skiriþorsdagr,
Maundy Thursday.) O.E. scir > N. Eng.
sheer.
SLAIK, vb. to smooth, to lick. L.L., 457,
2173. O.N. slaeikja, to
lick, Norse sleikja,
Dan. slikke, O. Sw. slekia, Sw.
dial. slaekja.
The Eng. word slick, with a short vowel,
corresponds exactly to the
Dan. word, but may be native. Cp.
M.L.G. slicken. Slikke
in Dan. may be a loan-word from
L.G. The Sco. slaik
corresponds in every way to the O.N.,
and is certainly a loan-word
proved by quality and quantity of
vowel.
SLAK, sb. a pit, a hollow in the ground, hollow
place. Bruce, XIV,
536; R.R., 769. O.N.
slakki, a slope, Norse slakke, Dan.
slank. Exhibits
W. Scand. assimilation of nk to kk.
Cu.
slack, a shallow dell
(Dickinson), Kent, slank.
SLE, adj. experienced, skillful. Bruce,
XVI, 355; XVII, 44. O.N.
slaegr, O. Ic. slaegr,
Eng. sly. See Skeat.
SLEEK, adj. neat, prancing, said of a horse.
Burns, 7, 1, 1. O.N.
slikr, smooth. Sleikit,
smooth, Dunbar, 567, 38; Burns,
117, 114. See Skeat,
under sleek, slick.
SLEUTH, sb. track. Bruce, VII, 1 and 44.
O.N. sloeth, track,
trail. Cp. Norse
slod, slode.
SLOKE, vb. to quench. Isaiah, I, 2, 3;
and 49, 26. O.N. sloekva,
to quench. O. Ic. slaekva,
Norse sloekka, id. The word does
not show the Scand. umlaut
o > oe. Cu. sleck has further
developed the umlaut oe
to e. Cp. O. Ic. ae < O. Nh.
ae.
All such words in Norse exhibit
the intermediate stage oe up
to the present time.
In Ic. the oe developed to ae, in the
first half of the 13th century.
(See Noreen P.G.(2)I, 529.)
In later O. Nhb. also ae
> e.
SLOKEN, SLOKYN, vb. to quench, to satisfy.
Dunbar, T.M.W., 283;
K.Q., 42; M.W., 116, 35.
O.N. slokna, Norse slokna,
inchoative of sloekva.
It may, however, be an infinitive in
en from sloekkva,
see slock.
SLOKNING, sb. the act of quenching, also the
power of quenching.
Douglas, II, 26, heading of
Chapter XII; Montg. C. and S.,
1377. Pr. p., see sloken.
Cp. O.N. slokning, Dan.
slukning.
SLONK, sb. a ditch, a depression in the land,
also a slope on the
mountain side. Winyet,
II, 19, 5; Wallace, III, 4. Dan.
slank, a depression
in the land, a hollow, O.N. slakki,
Norse slakke.
The non-assimilation proves E. Scand. source.
Cp. Sw. dial. slakk
adj. bending, e.g., “bakken jaer no na
slakk,” the hill slopes
a great deal, again a W. Scand. form
in Sw. dial. The word
is probably related to Eng. slack,
loose, lax, Dan. slak,
Norse sl[-a]k.
SLUT, sb. a slattern, an untidy woman.
Dunbar, 119, 71. O.N.,
O. Ic. sloettr.
See Skeat.
SMAIK, sb. a coward. Sat. P., 39,
175; Lyndsay, 425, 1320, and
434, 1562. O.N. smoeykr,
adj. timid, M.L.G. smeker means
“a flatterer,”
besides the vowel, as well as the final r of
the L.G. word, is against
a L.G. origin of the Sco. word. The
Sco. ai indicates an
original diphthong. Cp. Cu. smaik
applied to a small boy, or
any small being.
SNAPE-DIKE, sb. an enclosure. Jamieson,
Ayr. Cp. O.N. snap,
a pasture for cattle, especially
a winter pasture (Haldorson),
snapa, vb. to nibble,
M.E. snaipen. The vowel in the Sco.
word proves an original open
a, hence it is from the vb.
snapa. O.N. snap,
sb. would have given sn[)a]p. Our word
is sn[-e]p.
SNIB, SNEB, vb. to snub, check, reprove.
Sat., P., 33, 18; L.L.,
3387. Dan. snibbe,
M.E. snibben. Eng. snub and M.E.
snubben correspond
to O.N. snubba with original unumlauted
vowel.
SNITE, vb. to blow the nose, to snuff a candle.
Jamieson. O.N.
snyta, Norse snyta,
used exactly the same way, Dan.
snyde. Sw. snute
and M.L.G. snuten have unumlauted vowel
which would have given snoot,
snowt, or snoit in Sco.
SOCK, vb. to examine, investigate. Fergusson,
169. Probably from
O.N. saekja, to seek,
Norse soeka, soekja, Dan. soege
since O. Nhb. saeca
later became s[-e]ca and developed as
W.S. secan.
SOLANDE, sb. a soland goose. Dalr., I,
25, 1. O.N. sula + n
(Skeat). The d
is epenthetic. The n is the post-positive
definite article, a peculiarly
Scand. characteristic.
SOP, sb. a round, compact body. Bruce,
III, 47. O.N. soppr,
a ball (Skeat), Norse sopp,
id. Cp. Cu. sop, “a milk-
maid’s cushion
for the head.”
SOUM, sb. The rope or chain a plow is drawn
by. Dunbar, III, 126,
21. O.N. saumr,
a seam, trace. In Bruce, X, 180, hede-
soyme, sb. the trace.
SOYM, sb. trace of a cart. Bruce, X, 233.
From O.N. saumr,
a seam (Skeat), Norse saum,
Dan. soem. For oy in place of
ou, as we should expect,
cp. gowk and goilk, lowp and
loip, etc., and
the Norse laupa and loipa.
SPAE, SPA, vb. to prophesy. Douglas, II,
142, 2; II, 2; Burns, 37,
2, 2. O.N. spa,
to prophesy, Norse spaa, Dan. spaa, id.
Cp. spaamand, spaafolk,
and Sco. spaeman, spaefolk,
spaewife.
SPAY, SPE, sb. prophecy, omen, augury.
Dalr., II, 5, 8; Isaiah,
XLVII, 12. O.N. spa,
a prophecy. V[o,]luspa, the vala’s
prophecy, M.E. spa.
SPAEQUEAN, sb. fortune teller, spaewife.
Isaiah, XLVII. O.N.
spakona, a woman who
spaes. The compound may, however,
be Sco.
SPALE, sb. lath, chip, splinter. R.R.,
1979; Burns, 132, 114.
Norse spela, spila,
speil, a splinter, a chip, also
spol. O.N. spoelr,
a rail, bar, lattice work, sometimes
means “a short piece
of anything.” Cu. speal. The
O.E. word
is speld. Cp.
Fr. espalier.
SPENN, vb. to button, to lace. Jamieson.
O.N. spenna, to clasp.
Norse spenna, lace,
spenne sb. a buckle, Dan. spaende,
Sw. spaenne, to lace.
The O.E. word is spannan, without
umlaut. The meaning as
well as the form of the Sco. word is
Scand.
SPRACK, adj. lively, animated. Jamieson.
O.N. spr[’ae]kr, quick,
strong, sprightly, Norse spraek,
spry, nimble, Dan. spraek,
M.E. sprac. This
is one of a few undoubted Scand. words
found in South Eng. diall.
SPIL, sb. a stake. Douglas, III, 250,
16. O.N. *_spilr_, variant
of spoelr. Cp.
Norse spil, in the diall. of Western Norway.
See spale.
SPRATTLE, vb. to walk through mud, to scramble
through wet and
muddy places as the result
of which one’s clothes become
soiled. Burns, 10, 11,
3; also 68, 1, 3. O.N. spretta, Norse
spretta to spurt, sputter,
splash, Sw. spritte. On
assimilation of nt,
cp. sprent. The l is frequentative.
Exhibits characteristic Sco.
change of e to a before t.
Cp. wat for wet,
swat for sweat.
SPRENT, vb. to start, spring. Wallace,
N, 23. O. Dan. sprenta,
spurt out, spring, start,
O.N. spretta, Norse spretta,
shoot forth, spurt. In
Cu. a pen is said to sprent when it
scatters the ink over the
paper. So in Norse. The Sco. word
agrees more closely in meaning
with the Norse than with the
Dan. but exhibits E. Scand.
non-assimilation of nt to tt
which took place in Norse
before 1000. Sw. diall. which
otherwise have many W. Scand.
characteristics have both
sprenta and spritta.
The word spraette also occurs in
later Dan.
SPRENT, sb. a spring, as the back spring of
a knife. Wallace, IV,
238. See sprent,
vb.
STAKKER, STACKER, vb. to stagger. Brace,
II, 42; Gol. and Gaw.,
II, 25. O.N. stakra.
See B-S. under M.E. stakerin. Cp.
Norse stakra, to stagger,
to fall.
STANG, vb. to sting. R.R., 771. O.N.
stanga, to prick, goad,
also to butt, Norse stanga,
Dan. stange, id., M.E.
stangen.
STAPP, vb. to put into, to stuff, fill.
Dunbar, T.M.W., 99; Montg.
C. and S., 1552; Isaiah, VI,
6; M.W. 21, 12. O.N. stappa, to
stamp down, Norse stappa,
to stuff, fill, same as O.E.
stempan, Eng. stamp,
Dan. stampe. The assimilated form
stampa occurs in Norse
beside stappa. The usage in Sco. is
distinctively Norse and the
vowel is the Norse vowel. Not the
same as Eng. stop,
O.E. (for)_stoppian_ in Leechdoms. With
the last cp. Dan. stoppe
used just like Eng. stop.
STARN, sb. the helm of a vessel. Dunbar,
F., 450. O.N. stjorn,
steerage, helm, Norse stjorn,
vb. stjorna, to steer,
cognate with Eng. steer,
O.E. styrian. For a similar
difference between the Eng.
and the Norse word cp. Eng. star
and Norse stjerne.
STARR, sb. sedge, heavy coarse grass.
Jamieson. See Wall under
star.
STERN, STARN, sb. star. C.S., 48; Dunbar,
G.T. 1; Lindsay, 239,
492. O.N. stjarna,
Dan. stjerne, star, Norse stjerna.
STERT, vb. to start, rush. Poet.
R., 109, 8. O.N. sterta. For
discussion of this word see
Skeat.
STOOP, sb. See roop.
STORKYN, vb. to become rigid, stiffen.
Dunbar, 248, 48. Norse
storkna, coagulate,
become rigid. See Wall under storken.
STOT, sb. a young bull, bullock. Montg.,
C. and S., 1099; A.P.B.
1, 306; Burns, 231, 129, 4.
Stratmann derives M.E. stot,
“buculus,” from
Sw. stut; and stot, “caballus,”
from O.E.
stotte. O.N. stutr
is rather the source of the former.
Norse stut, Dan. stud.
STOUR, sb. a pole. Douglas, III, 248,
27. O.N. staur, a pole,
a stake, Norse staur,
Sw. stoer, Dan. and Dano-Norse
stoer. See the
quotation under pocknet.
STOWIT, pt. p. cutoff, cropped. Douglas,
III, 42, 3. O.N. stufa,
a stump, styfa, to
cut off, Dan. stuve, Sw. stuf,
a piece left after the rest
has been cut away, styva, to
crop, O. Sw., Sw. dial. styva,
stuva, id. An O.E.
styfician, to root
up, occurs once (Leechdoms). See B-T.
STOWP, sb. a pitcher, a beaker. Dunbar,
161, 26. O.N. staup,
a beaker, a cup, Norse staup,
id., Dan. stoeb, O.E.
st[-e]ap, O.H.G. stouf.
STRAY, STRAE, STRA, sb. straw. O.N. stra,
Dan., Norse straa,
Sw. stra , Cu. strea.
STROUP, (str[-u]p), sb. the spout of a kettle
or pump. Burns, 602;
Jamieson. O.N. strjupi,
the spurting trunk, Norse strupe
and striupe, the throat,
gullet, Dan. strube, id., M.E.
str[-u]pe, the throat.
STUDIE, sb. anvil. Dunbar, 141, 52.
The word rhymes with smidy.
See styddy.
STYDDY, STUDDIE, STUTHY, sb. anvil. Douglas,
III, 926, 9;
III, 180, 26; Dunbar 141,
52. See also Burns, 502. O.N.
steethi, a stithy,
an anvil. Norse sted. Sw. staed.
Exhibits change of eth to
d which is a Sco. characteristic,
but does not often take place
in Norse words. See, too, Cu.
stiddy, steady.
SUMPH, sb. a blunt fellow. Burns, 98,
1. Norse sump, a bungler,
a simpleton, sumpa,
vb. to entangle, put into disorder,
sump, a disordered
mass. Cu. sumph. M.L.G. sump,
and
Dan. sump do not seem
to be quite the same.
SWARF, vb. originally to turn, then to overturn,
fall over, fall.
Burns, 211, 87, 4. O.N.
svarfa, to turn aside, to be turned
upside down, Sw. swarfve,
Norse svarva, turn, swing about,
Dan. svarve or svarre.
Eng. swerve does not quite
correspond. O.E. sweorfan
meant “to file, polish,” O.S.
swerban, to wipe off,
polish, O.F. swerva, to creep.
SWAGE, SWEY, vb. sway, waver, also turn, make
turn. Sat. P., 5, 8;
Douglas, II, 104, 12.
O.N. svaeigja, to bend, to sway, Dan.
sveie, Sw. dial. svaeiga,
Norse sveigja.
SYTE, sb. grief, suffering. Lyndsay, 273,
333. Montg., M.P.,
V, 14. O.N. syta,
to wail, syting, sb., sut, grief,
affliction, Norse sut,
care, syta, to care. Skeat cites
sut (in list) which
would exactly correspond to the O.N. sb.
Brate accepts an O.N. sb.
syt.
TAIT, adj. foul. Montg., F., 755.
O.N. taeth. The change of eth to
t is unusual.
See Wall.
TANGLE, sb. seaweed, stalk of a seaweed.
Dalr., I, 62, 1; Burns,
91, 2, 2. O.N. þoengul,
tangle, seaweed. Cp. þoenglabakki,
Tangle-hill, name of a place
in Iceland. In Norse tangel
same as Eng. tangle,
entangle.
TANGLING, pr. p., adj. clinging, intertwining.
Burns, 60, 3,
tangling roots, clinging together
in tangles. See tangle.
TARN, sb. a small lake. Jamieson.
O.N. tjoern, a small lake,
Norse tjoenn, tjoern,
Sw. tjaern, M.E. terne, a lake.
Particularly Sco. and N.W.
Eng. Cp. Shetland shon, shoden,
a pool, a little lake.
The last example exhibits W.Norse
change of rn to dn.
The form tjoedn occurs in Sogn,
Norway.
TATH, sb. Jamieson. O.N. taeth. See Wall.
TEAL, TILL, vb. to entice. Wallace, VI,
151, and Jamieson. O.N.
taela, to entice, related
to Norse telja. Sco. tealer,
sb. Jamieson.
The form in i is strange.
TEYND, TEIND, sb, tithe. C.S., 123; Lyndsay,
152, 4690; Rolland,
I, 546. O.N. tiund,
the tenth, the tithe, Norse tiende,
Dan. tiende, the regular
ordinal of ti.
THA, dem. pron. these, those. Same form
in all cases. Wallace, X,
41; Wyntoun, I, 1, 6.
O.N. þeir.
THECK, vb. to thatch. Ramsay, II, 224.
Has been taken as a loan-
word from O.N. þekja,
to thatch, Norse tekka, Sw. taecka.
Cp. O.E. þeccan.
Theck probably comes from O. Nhb. þecca.
THIR, dem. pron. these, those. Bruce,
I, 76; Dunbar, G.T., 127;
Lyndsay, 4, 20, 1175; R.R.,
108. O.N. þeir. Cp. M.E. þir,
þer, those, Cu. thur.
THRA, adj. eager. Bruce, XVIII, 71.
O.N. þrar, obstinate,
persistent, Norse traa,
untiring, also wilful, Sw. dial.
tra, M.E. þra,
bold, strong, thraly, adv. Wyntoun, II,
8, 55; VII, 8, 186. See
Wall. Skeat cites Eng. dial. thro.
THRA, adv. boldly. Dunbar, T.M.W., 195. See above, thra.
TRAIF, sb. two stooks or twenty-four sheaves
of grain. Dunbar,
228. O.N. þrefi,
a number of sheaves, Dan. trave, Sw.
trafwe, twenty sheaves
of grain, M.E. þr[-a]ve, a bundle,
a number, Cu. threve,
threeav.
THREAVE, sb. a crowd, a large number.
Ramsay, II, 463. The same
word as thraif, q.v.
THRIST, vb. to thrust, push, also means to
clasp. Bruce, XIII,
156; R.R. 12, 9; Rolland,
IV, 590. O.N. þrysta, to thrust,
force, Norse trysta,
to press together, M.E. þr[-i]sten,
þr[-y]stan. Lyndsay also
uses the word in the sense of
“to pierce.”
THWAITE, sb. originally a small piece of cleared
land on which
ahouse was built, a
cottage with its paddock. O.N. þvaeit,
O. Ic. þveit.
Northwest England thwaite, Norse tveit,
tvaeit, Dan. tved.
Occurs in a number of place-names in
S. Scotland, especially in
Dumfriesshire. Its form is Norse
not Dan. Thweet or
thwet would correspond to the Dan.
word, but see also Part III,
1.
TIT, TYT, adv. soon, quickly. Bruce, II, 4; IV,
289. O.N. titt,
adv. frequently, in quick
succession, “hoeggva hart ok titt.”
The Sco. word comes from this
O.N. form, which is simply the
neuter inflected form of tiethr,
adj. meaning “customary,
familiar.” The
comparative titter often means “rather”
in
Sco., like Eng. sooner.
Cp. Cu. “I’d as tite deat as
nut,”
“I’d as lief do
it as not.”
TITHAND, TITAND, sb. news, tidings. Bruce,
IV, 468; Lyndsay,
341, 720. O.N.
tiethindi, news, Norse tidende, id.,
Dan.
tidende, Orm. tiþennde.
Of O.E. tidung > tidings
Bosworth says: “the
use of the word, even if its form be not
borrowed from Scand., seems
to have Scand. influence.”
TITLENE, sb. the hedge sparrow. C.S.,
38. O.N. titlingr, a tit,
a sparrow.
TOYM, TUME, sb. leisure. Bruce, V, 64,
2, XVII, 735. O.N. tom,
leisure (Skeat).
TRAIST, vb. to trust. Bruce, I, 125; XVII,
273; Rolland, I, 27.
Trast, adj.
secure, traist, sb. confidence.
Lindsay,
229, 195. Traisting,
sb. confidence, reliance, L.L., 25.
Cp. O.N. troeysta,
adj. traustr, and Eng. trust,
M.E.
trusten. I do
not at present understand the relation between
the forms in e, and
these in u and ou.
TRIG, adj. trim, neat, handsome. M.W.,
159, 26. O.N. tryggr,
true, trusty, unconcerned,
trygging, security, O. Dan.
trygd, trugd,
confidence (Schlyter), Norse trygg,
secure, unconcerned, confident,
tryggja, to consider secure,
tryggja sek, feel secure,
Dan. tryg, fearless, confident.
Cp. Cu. trig,
tight, well-fitted, “trig as an apple.”
The
M.E. trig means faithful,
see B-S. Ramsay, II, 526, uses the
adv. trigly in the
sense of “proudly.”
TWIST, sb. twig, branch. Bruce, VII, 188;
Montg., C. and S.,
Irving, 468. O.N. kvistr,
a twig, O. Dan., quist, Norse,
Dan. kvist, Sw. quist,
id. For the change of kv (kw)
to tw cp. Norse,
Dan. kviddre, Sw. quittra, Du.
kwittern with Eng.
twitter, and kj to tj in W.Norse.
A regular change.
TYNE, vb. lose, impair, destroy. C.S.,
3; Wyntoun, IX, 21, 14;
R.R. 779. O.N. tyna,
to lose, destroy, Norse tyna, to
lose, sometimes impair, Sw.
dial. tyna, to destroy.
TYNSELL, TYNSALE, sb. loss. Bruce, V,
450, XIX, 449; R.R., 505. In
Wyntoun, IX, 3, 25, it means
“delay, loss of time,” frequently
means “loss of life,
slaughter.” M.E. tinsel, loss, ruin,
probably a Sco. formation
from tyne, to lose, similarly in
Norse tynsell, loss
(not frequent), from tyna.
TYNSALE, vb. to lose, suffer loss. Bruce, XIX, 693. See the sb.
TYTT, adj. firm, tight. Wallace, VII,
21, 2. O.N. þittr, tight,
close, Norse, tett
or titt, Dan. taet, Sw. taet,
close
together, tight, Eng. dial.
theet. The long vowel in theet
is unusual.
UG, vb. to dislike, abhor. Winyet, II,
31, 32; Scott, 71, 119.
O.N. ugga, abhor, Norse
ugga, see B-S.
UGSUM, adj. fearful. Sat. P., 3,
135. See ug. Ougsum, Howlate,
I, 8, means “ugly.”
UNDERLIE, adj. wonderful. Gau, 29, 24.
Dan. underlig, Norse,
underleg, O.N. underlegr,
wonderful, shows Scand. loss of
w before u.
The O.E. word is wundorlic, cp. Scand.
ulf, Eng. wolf.
The word is Dan. in Gau.
UNFLECKIT, adj. unstained. Psalms, XXIV, 4. See fleckerit.
UNGANAND (g[-e]n.), adj. unfit, unprepared.
Douglas, II, 48, 16.
See ganand.
UNRUFE, sb. restlessness, vexation. Gol.
and Gaw., 499. See
rove, sb. Cp.
Norse uro, restlessness, noise, Dan. uro,
id.
UNSAUCHT, adj. disturbed, troubled. Gol.
and Gaw., II, 12. See
saucht.
UPBIGARE, sb. a builder. Winyet, II, 3,
4. See big. Cp. Norse
bygga up.
UPLOIP, vb. leap up. Montg., M.P., III,
33. See loup. On this
change of ou to oi
cp. the same word in Norse, laupa and
loipa.
VATH, WAITH, sb. danger. Bruce, V, 418;
Wallace, IX, 1737.
O.N._vaethi_, harm, mishap,
disaster, Dan. vaade, danger,
adversity, Sw. vade,
an unlucky accident, M.E. w[-a]þe,
peril. Does not seem
to exist in the modern diall.
VITTERLY, adv. certainly. Bruce, IV, 771;
X, 350. O.N. vitrliga,
wisely, Dan. vitterlig,
well-known, undoubted, M.E.
witerliche, certainly.
VYNDLAND, pr. p. whirling around. Bruce,
XVII, 721. O.N. vindla,
to wind up. Norse vindel,
a curl, anything twisted or wound.
Cu. winnel. Cp.
Dan. vindelbugt, a spiral twist. Skeat
cites provincial Eng. windle,
a wheel for winding yarn.
WAG, vb. to totter, walk unsteady. Dunbar,
120, 98. Norse,
vagga, to swing, rock,
sway, O.N. vaga, to waddle. See
further Skeat.
WAGGLE, vb. to wag, sway from side to side,
wabble. M.W., 16, 23;
51, 5. Sw. dial. vagla,
vackla, to reel, Norse vakla,
id. May be taken as a
Sco. frequentative of wag, q.v. Not to
be derived from the L.G. word.
Confined to the Scand.
settlements.
WAILIE, adj. excellent. Burns, 179, 2,
3, and 8, 7. See wale,
sb.
WAILIT, adj. choice, fashionable, excellent.
Rolland, I, 64. See
wail, vb.
WALE, vb. to select, choose. Douglas,
III, 3, 21; Dunbar, G.T.,
186. Probably from the
noun wale, choice. The vowel does not
correspond with that of the
O.N. vb. velja, which should
have become well.
But the forms dwall from O.N. dvelja,
and hale, O.N. hella,
appear in Sco. Wale may be a
formation analogous to hale.
WAITH, sb. the spoil of the chase or of fishing.
Wallace, I, 386.
O.N. vaeiethr, a catch
in hunting or fishing. Norse veidd,
the chase, veida, to
hunt. On Sco. faid, a company of
hunters. See I, Sec.22.
WANDRETH, sb. sorrow, trouble. Douglas,
I, 88, 14. O.N.
vandraeethi, difficulty,
trouble. Norse, vanraad, misery,
poverty.
WANT, VANT, vb. lack, stand in need of, suffer.
Montg., S., 48, 3;
Lyndsay, 152, 40704; Bruce,
V, 422; Burns, 113, 2, 3. O.N.
vanta, to lack.
Norse vanta, lack, never means desire.
This is the regular use of
the word in Sco.
WANTHREIVIN, adj. unthriven, miserable.
Montg., F., 327. O.N.
van + þrifenn,
Norse vantreven, O.N. vb. þrifa, Norse
triva, vantriva
(refl.). See Skeat under Eng. thrive and
thrift.
WAP (w[)ae]p), vb. to turn, overturn, throw,
hurl. Douglas, I, 2,
20; III, 167, 28; Gol. and
Gaw., 127. O.N. vappa, to waddle.
Norse vappa, turn,
wrap around. Sw. dial. vappla, wrap up.
Cu. wap, to wrap.
WARE, vb. to lay out money, spend. Rolland,
III, 450; Dunbar, 92,
13; R.R., 3553. O.N.
verja, to invest money. See Wall.
WAUR, vb. to overcome. Burns, 7, 1, 7;
Psalms, CXL, 2. See werr.
Cp. Eng. worst
as a vb. and superlative of bad, worse.
WEIK, vb. to weaken. Scott, 68, 14.
Cp. Norse veikja, to
weaken, make weak. O.N.
vaeikja, to grow weak, both from adj.
vaeikr, weak, same
as O.E. w[-a]c. The Sco. vb. may be
formed directly from the adj.,
in which case its origin
becomes uncertain. Skeat
says Eng. weak, M.E. weyke (which
replaced wook < O.E.
w[-a]c), is from O.N. vaeikr. But
the M. Sco. form of O.E. or
O. Nhb. w[-a]c was w[-a]ke
(w[-e]k); our word could come
from this. The diphthong,
however, rather indicates
that it comes from the Norse vb.
WEILL-VARANDLY, adv. in a proper manner.
R.R., 911. See farrand.
Cp. O.N. fara vel,
Norse fara vel, to go well, velfaren,
gone well.
WELTER, vb. to roll, turn, overturn. Bruce,
XI, 25; III, 700;
Douglas, II, 125, 25; T.M.W.,
439; Lyndsay, 342, 770. O.N.
valtra, to be unsteady,
not firm, easily shaken. O. Sw.
valltra, Sw. dial.
vaelltra, to roll.
WERR, WERE, WAR, VAR, WAUR, adj. worse.
C.S., 57; Lyndsay,
428, 1392; R.R., 589, etc.
O.N. verr, worse, Norse verr,
verre, Dan. vaerre,
Sw. vaerr, Cu. waar. This is the
modern Sco. pronunciation
of it. The O. Fr. wirra does not
correspond to the Sco. forms
of the word. It is most common in
Scotland and N.W. England.
WICHT, adj. strong, vigorous, skillful.
Bruce, VII, 263; Ramsay,
I 253. O.N. vigr,
fit for battle, skilled in war, from
vig, battle, Sw. vig,
active, M.E. wiht, valiant. B-S.
queries the word, but thinks
it may come from M.L.G. wicht,
heavy, thus the same word
as Eng. weight. This meaning is,
however, not satisfactory.
The Sco. usage is that of the
Scand. word. The t
is inflectional. Cp. O.N. eiga vigt um.
WICK, vb. to make to turn, to strike off on
the side, strike a
stone in an oblique direction,
a term in curling, to hit the
corner (Wagner). O.N.
vikja, to turn, to veer, Sw. dial.
vik, Sw. wika,
Norse vikja, vika, to turn (causative).
Dan. vige not quite
the same word.
WILKATT, sb. a wild cat, Dalr., I, 723.
Ramsay II, 500. O.N.
vill + Eng., Norse
cat, kat.
WILL, VILL, adj. adv. lost, bewildered, astray.
Dunbar, 228, 74;
Douglas, II, 24, 6, “to
go will.” O.N. villr, bewildered,
fara villt, get lost,
Norse vill, astray, Dan. vild, Sw.
vill. Cp.
Cu. wills, doubts, “Aaz i’ wills
whether to gang
or nit.”
WILRONE, sb. a wild boar. Scott, 71, 106.
O.N. vill, wild, +
runi, a boar, a wild
boar, Norse rone, raane, Sw. dial.
rane, Dan., with metathesis,
orne.
WILSUM, adj. errant, wandering. Douglas,
II, 65, 16; “a wilsome
way,” “Freires
of Berwick,” 410. See will, astray.
Wilsum
more frequently means “willful,”
is Eng.
WISSLE, VISSIL, WYSSIL. Douglas, III, 225, 8;
Bruce, XII, 580;
Montg., F., 578. O.N.
vixla, to cross, to put across,
vixlingr, a changeling
(Cl. and V.), Norse veksla,
vessla, to exchange,
Dan. veksle. Sco. and Norse both show
the change of ks to
ss. The Norse form versla shows
later dissimilation of ss
to rs. This is W.Norse.
WITTIR, sb. a sign. Douglas, II, 231, 16. See wittering.
WITTERING, VITTERING, sb. information, knowledge.
Bruce, IV, 562;
Douglas, II, 185, 27.
O.N. vitring, revelation, from vb.
vitra, to reveal.
Norse vitring, information, M.E.
witering, id.
WELTER, sb. an overturning. Winyet, I,
49, 22. See the vb.
welter.
1. THE DIALECTAL PROVENIENCE OF LOANWORDS.
The general character of the Scand. loanwords in Sco. is Norse, not Dan. This is shown by (a) A number of words that either do not exist in Dan. or else have in Sco. a distinctively W. Scand. sense; (b) Words with a W. Scand. form.
(a). The following words have in
Sco. a W. Scand. meaning
or are not found in Danish:
AIRT, to urge. O.N. erta.
Not a Dan. word.
APERT, boldly. O.N. apr.
Not Dan.
AWEBAND, a rope for tying
cattle. O.N. haband. Meaning
distinctively
W. Scand.
BAUCH, awkward. Not E.
Scand.
BEIN, liberal. Meaning
is W. Scand.
BROD, to incite. O.N.
brodda, id. Dan. brodde, means “to
equip with points.”
BYSNING, monstrous. O.N.
bysna. Not E. Scand.
CARPE, to converse. Not
E. Scand.
CHOWK, jawbone. Rather
W. Scand. than E. Scand.
CHYNGILL, gravel. A Norse
word.
DAPILL, gray. A W. Scand.
word.
DYRDUM, uproar. W. Scand.
The word is also found in Gael.
Furthermore the
form is more W. Scand. than Dan. Cp. dyr
and
dor.
DOWLESS, worthless. Duglauss
a W. Scand. word.
DUDS, clothes. Not found
in Dan. or Sw.
ETTLE, aim at. W. Scand.
meaning. O. Dan. aetlae meant “ponder
over.”
FARRAND, handsome. This
meaning is Icelandic and Norse.
FELL, mountain. W. Scand.
more than E. Scand.
GANE, be suitable. O.N.
gegna. Vb. not found in Dan.
GYLL, a ravine. O.N.
gil. Is W. Scand.
HEID, brightness. O.N.
haereth. Icel. and Norse.
HOOLIE, slow. O.N. hogligr.
Not in Dan. or Sw.
KENDILL, to kindle. Ormulum
kinndlenn is from O. Ic. kendill
(Brate).
LIRK, to crease. I have
not found the word in E. Scand.
MELDER, flour. O.N. meldr.
Is W. Scand., particularly Norse.
POCKNET, a fishnet. O.N.
p[-o]ki-net. Not Dan.
RAMSTAM, indiscreet, boisterous.
Both elements are W. Scand.
SCARTH, cormorant. W.
Scand.
TARN, a lake. Distinctively
Norse.
TYNE, to lose. O.N. tyna.
Distinctively Norse.
WAITH, booty. O.N. vaeiethr.
Icel. and Sondmore, Norway.
WARE, to spend. N. verja.
W. Scand.
WICK, to cause to turn.
O.N. vikja. Not Danish.
(b). The following words are W. Scand. in form:
BOLAX, hatchet. O.N.
boloex. The O. Dan. word has the vowel
u,
buloex.
BOWN, O.N. buinn, cp.
grouf < grufu; bowk < bukr;
stroup
< strjupr; dowless < duglauss,
etc. The O. Dan.
word was boin.
The form in Orm. is b[-u]n, a Norse
loanword.
BUSK, to prepare, has W. Scand.
reflexive ending sk.
BUTH, O.N. bueth.
The O. Dan., O. Sw. vowel was o, boeth
and
bodh, so
in modern Dan. diall. In Norse diall. it is u.
CAPPIT shows W. Scand. assimilation
Monophthongization of ou to o, ai to i (e), oey to oe took place in O. Dan. about 900. The Scand. loanwords in Eng., where the monophthong might be expected to appear, nearly always have the diphthong, however, which as we know was kept in W. Scand. Have such words been borrowed from W. Scand. then, or were they borrowed from Dan. before the period of monophthongation? Danish settlements began in the latter half of the 9th Century, but Dan. (and Norse) and Eng. did not merge immediately. Scand. continued to be spoken throughout the next century down to the beginning of the 11th Century (Noreen). Brate says the majority of loanwords probably came in in the beginning of the 10th Century. Wall points out that the Mercian and the Northumbrian Gospels of the 1st part of the 10th Century show extremely small traces of Scand. influence. It would seem, then, that the greater number of loanwords came in after monophthongation had taken place in Dan. The following dates for the appearance of loanwords in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may be of interest. These are all taken from Egge’s article, “Norse Words in the A-S. Chronicle.”
Hold first appears in 905, then again in 911 and 921; law in the present sense is first used in 959; in 1002 is first found the word grith, peace, which at once became common; laetan, to think, is first found in 1005. In 1008 appears sagth; in 1011 hustinge; 1014 utlagian; 1048 the noun utlah; 1016 feologan; 1036, 1046, 1047, lithmen, sailors; lith, fleet, in 1012, 1066, 1068, 1069, 1071; in 1055 sciplith; in 1036, 1041, 1054, 1045, and 1071 huscarl; hamule, hamle 1039; ha 1040; hasata, rower, (O.N. ha-saeti) in 1052; in 1048 bunda and husbunda; 1049 nithing; in the same year also the phrase scylode of male, paid off (O.N. skilja af mali); 1052, 1066 butscarl, boatsman, hytte in 1066, wyrre 1066. In 1072 for the first time appears tacan; in 1076 hofding and brydlop, etc.
We may conclude that the Scand. elements that had come into O.Eng. in the beginning of the 10th Century were not large. From the middle of the century they came in in large numbers, but the period of most extensive borrowing seems rather to be the last part of the 10th and the first half of the 11th Century. Wall suggests that the Dan. spoken by the Dan. settlers in England was of a more archaic kind than that spoken in Denmark—that this might in many cases account for the archaic character of the loanwords. We know that the settlements in central England were predominantly Dan. as opposed to Norse. The Scand. place-names as well as the character of the loanwords in the Ormulum indicate that. It is probable, then, that monophthongation took place later in the Dan. spoken in England than in that spoken in Denmark. The following is a list of some of these words found in Scotch. O.N. aei, Dan. e: bayt, to graze; blaik, to cleanse; graip, a fork; grane, a branch; graith, to prepare; laike, to play; slaik, to smoothen; lairing, gutter; the Yorkshire form lyring (Wall) seems to show an original monophthong. O.N. oey: careing, smaik. O.N. ou, Dan. oe: blout, bare; douff, dull; gowk, a fool; haugh, a knoll; loup, to run; louse, loose; nout, cattle; rowt, to roar; rowst, to cry out; stowp, a beaker; stour, a pole.
It will be seen from the above, leaving out of consideration the diphthong ou and ai, that the character of a large number of the loanwords is Norse. In a great many cases the E. and W. Scand. form of the word was the same. There are, however, a few words in Sco. that bear a Dan. stamp: sprent, donk and slonk exhibit E. Scand. non-assimilation of nt and nk to tt and kk. Snib corresponds to Dan. snibbe, cp. M.E. snibben. All these have the umlaut. Eng. snub, M.E. snubben and O.N. snubba have the unumlauted vowel. Bud agrees closer with Dan. bud, budh, than O.N. boeth, Norse bod. Thraive (Dunbar) and threave (Ramsay) both indicate an original a-vowel, hence correspond better to Dan. trave than O.N. þrefi. To these may be added bask, flegger and forjeskit, which are not found in W. Scand.
2. (a) THE OLD NORTHERN VOWELS IN THE LOANWORDS.
The values given in the following tables are for Middle Scotch. The symbols used do not need explanation:
SHORT VOWELS.
a.
O.N. a
in originally close syllable > ae, written a:
anger,
hansell, apert, ban, blabber,
slak,
cast, chaff, dash, dram,
bang,
fang,
stang, lack, etc.
O.N. a
in originally close syllable before r remains
a:
bark, carl, carp, farrand,
garth,
harth,
scarth, swarf, and harsk (O.
Dan.).
O.N., O. Dan.
a in close syllable > e in blether,
forjeskit,
welter.
a
in close syllable > [-e] (ay, ai)
in aynd,
baittenin.
a
in close syllable remains a, written o
in
cog.
O.N. a
in originally open syllable regularly becomes
[-e],
written a, ai, ay: dasen,
flake,
maik,
scait, etc.
O.N. a
+ g > [-e] written ai in braid,
gane
(to
profit).
a
+ g > aw in bawch. In mawch
eth fell out
and
a developed as a before g.
e.
O.N. e
remains in airt, bekk, bleck,
cleck,
cleg,
egg (to incite), elding, esping,
fleckerit,
freckled, gedde, gengeld, kendell,
melder,
mensk, nevin, werr, spenn,
stert,
sker.
O. Dan. e
remains in sprent.
O.N. e
becomes i in lirk, kitling, and
before
ng
in ding, flingin, hing, and also
in
skrip,
styddy.
O.N. e
> ae, written a, in dapill, clag.
Cp.
sprattle in Burns.
>
ae before r in ware.
>
a before r in karling.
O.N. e
> i in neefe (nieve).
O.N. e
appears as u in studdy. See word
list.
O.N. e
(from older aei) > [-e] in hailse.
e
+ g > e written a, ai:
e.g., haine,
gane
(to suit).
i.
O.N. i
generally remains i: bing, grith,
kist,
link,
lite, titling, wilrone, frequently
written
y: byng, chyngill, gyll,
etc.
O.N. i
before st > e: gestning,
restit.
i
> [-i] in ithand (ythand), and
ei in
eident.
o.
O.N. o
remains o: boldin, bolle,
brod,
costlyk,
loft, rock, etc.
O.N. o
+ g > ow in low.
u.
O.N. u
generally remains u: bught, buller,
clunk,
cunnand, lucken, ugg, clubbit,
drucken,
skugg. The sound of u in O.N.,
however,
was approximately that of oo in “foot.”
O.N. u
> [-u] in drook.
y.
O.N. y
always becomes i, written i, y:
big,
birr,
filly, flit, trig, wyndland,
gylmyr.
The O.N. y had approximately the value
of
Germ. ue.
ae.
O.N. ae > e in ettle.
oe
O.N. oe
> e in gleg, glegy, appears as
u in
slut.
O.N. oe,
u-v-umlaut of a, becomes ae,
written
a:
daggit, ragweed, tangle.
O.N. oe,
u-umlaut of a in originally open syllable,
like
open a, > [-e] in spale.
Hence u-umlaut does not appear in loanwords.
ja (ia).
O.N. ja
> a in assle-tooth, harn, starn.
>
e in sker and stern.
joe (ioe).
O.N. joe
> a in tarn.
O.N. joe
> i before r in firth, gyrth
(gjoerth),
gyrthin.
LONG VOWELS.
[-a].
O.N. [-a]
regularly > [-e], written a, ai,
ay,
ae,
ei (?): baith, blae, bray,
braith,
fra,
frae, lait, craik, ra,
saikless,
spay,
etc.
O.N. [-a]
+ g > aw, awch, aigh, aich,
awsome,
law, sb. law, adj. lawch, beside
laigh
and laich in N. Sco.
O.N. [-a]
+ l > ow in chowk (O.N. kjalki).
[-e].
O.N. [-e] remains in ser,
seir.
[-e] > [-ae], written a,
in fallow.
O.N. [-e] before tt > i,
written y, in tytt.
Cp. titt in W.Norse dial.
[-i].
O.N. [-i] most frequently
remains [-i], written i,
y: flyre, gryce,
grise, myth, skrik,
rive, ryfe, tithand,
etc.
O.N. [-i] appears as e in skrech,
probably
pronounced skrich.
O.N. [-i] > [-e], written ei,
in quey, gleit,
keik.
O.N. [-i] > [)i] in scrip,
wick, and before
original xl in wissle (wyssyl).
The corresponding word in Norse also has a short
vowel,
but changed to e, veksl, vessla
(and versla).
[-o].
O.N. [-o]
> [-u], written o, oo, u,
eu:
crove,
rove, unrufe, hoolie, hulie,
lufe,
ruse,
roose, sleuth, tume.
O.N. [-o]
> ou in clour.
[-o]
> oy in toym (Bruce), exact sound uncertain.
[-o]
+ l > ow in bow.
[-u].
O.N. [-u]
remains in buth, grouf.
O.N. [-u]
generally > ou, ow: boun,
bowne,
bowk,
cow, cour, etc.
[-u]
> [-o] in solande, stot.
[-u]
> [)u] in busk.
[-y].
O.N. [-y]
regularly > [-i], written i, y:
lythe,
tyne, sit, skyrin, snite.
Cp. y.
O.N. [-y]
appears as [-e] (ei) in neiris,
exact
sound
not certain. Cp. [-y] before st
> [)i] in
thrist
(O.N. þrysta).
[-ae].
O.N. [-ae]
remains in hething.
[-ae]
> e in sait.
[-ae]
> e, e, in rad, red, radness,
etc.
DIPHTHONGS.
ai.
O.N. ai
> [-e], written a, ai, ay,
ei:
bait,
bein, bayt, blaik, dey,
grane,
graip,
graith, heid, laif, lairet,
lairing,
lak, laiching, thwaite, waith,
slaik,
swage, raise, tha.
O.N. ai
> i in nyte (?).
O.N. ai
is represented by i before r in thir.
Cp.
Cu. thur.
O.N. ain
> en initially in enkrely.
oey.
O.N. oey
> [-e], written e, ai: careing,
dey,
smaik.
oey
> e in yemsel (yhemsell), may be
a case of
Dan.
monophthongation.
ou, au.
O.N. ou,
au is regularly ou, ow in Sco.:
blowt,
douff,
dowff, gowk, gowl, loup,
louse,
nowt,
rout, rowste, soum. Very
frequently
appears
as oi, oy: e.g., soym,
doif, goilk,
loip,
etc.
O.N. ou > u
in gukk, vb. formed from gowk (?).
jo.
O.N. jo
before r > a in starn (O.N. stjorn).
jo > ei
in leister. Appears as i in the
N. Sco.
word
shiel.
ju.
O.N. ju
> [-u] in stroop.
ju
> i in skyle.
(b) THE OLD NORTHERN CONSONANTS.
b.
O.N. b
regularly remains b.
Is
lost after m in gylmyr.
b
> p initially pirrye.
d.
O.N. d
regularly remains.
Is
lost after n in hansell.
An
epenthetic d appears after n in solande,
ythand;
after l in boldin and rangeld.
O.N. ld
> ll in caller.
g.
O.N. g
regularly remains g before guttural and
palatal
vowels alike.
g
> [*g] before a palatal vowel in gen[*g]eld,
yhemsel.
O.N. g
disappears after n in titlene.
g
> ch in bawch, lawch.
On
O.N. a + g, o + g, e
+ g, see the
vowels.
p.
O.N. p
regularly remains p.
p
> ph finally in sumph.
t.
O.N. t
regularly remains t.
t
> tch in scratch.
Seems
to have become d in cadie (O.N. katr),
but
Dan.
kadh may be the source.
An
epenthetic t after n appears in eident.
k.
O.N. k
regularly remains k.
k
> ch finally in screch. Cp. also
laiching.
O.N. ks
(x) > ss in assletooth, wissle.
On
O.N. sk, see s.
v.
O.N. v
regularly becomes w: welter, witter,
ware,
werr, wicht, etc.
O.N. v
is represented by v in vath, vittirly,
vyndland,
all in Bruce.
An
epenthetic v appears after o (u)
in crove,
rove,
unrufe.
eth, þ
O.N. eth,
þ quite regularly > th: baith,
bletherb,
raith, buith, degraith, firth,
garth,
graith, ithand, lythe, mythe,
hething,
harth, grith, gyrth, waith,
vath,
sleuth, tath, skaith, wandreth,
etc.
O.N. eth
> d medially and finally in eident,
ydlanlie,
heid, red, duds, stud.
O.N. eth
is lost in mauch.
O.N. þ
initially remains in thrist, thra, thraif,
tha,
thir, thwaite, wan-threvin.
þ
> t in tytt, tangle.
f.
O.N. f
initially always remains.
Medially
and finally f remains in cloff, nefe,
lufe,
laif.
Medially
and finally f > v in: nieve,
nevin,
rive,
lave, crave.
O.N. f
> th in scarth (O.N. skarfr).
An
epenthetic f appears in unrufe (v?).
s.
O.N. s
regularly remains s.
s
> ch in chyngill (?).
sk.
O.N. sk
= sk initially medially and finally: skar,
sker,
skewit, skill, skugg, skrech,
skant,
scait, scool, scratch, scarth,
skait,
skail, scud, scudler, script,
skyle,
skeigh, busk, bask (dry), harsk,
harskness,
forjeskit, mensk(?).
O.N. sk
> sh finally in dash (?).
sk
> sh before a guttural vowel in shacklet
(?),
and
schore (?).
O.N. sk
before i ([-i]) > sh in shiel.
Cp.
skyle above.
sk
> s finally in mense.
h.
O.N. h
initially before vowels remains, except in
aweband.
O.N. h
initially before r, l, n, is lost:
rad,
rangale,
ruse, lack, loup, nieve,
etc.
O.N. ht
remains, is not assimilated to tt, e.g.,
sacht,
unsaucht.
An
inorganic h initially appears in hendir,
hugsum.
hv.
O.N. hv regularly > qu, quh: quhelm, quey.
m, n, l, r.
O.N. m
regularly remains.
m
before t > n in skant, skantlin.
O.N. n
always remains, nd is not assimilated to nn.
Cp.
Cu. winnle.
O.N. l
initially remains.
Medially
and finally generally remains.
O.N. l
after o > w: bowdyne, bowne,
bow.
l
very frequently takes the place of w medially:
golk,
dolf.
An
excrescent l appears in gylmyr.
O.N. r regularly remains.
Disappears before sk in bask,
undergoes metathesis
in gyrth.
Inflexional r remains in caller.
* * * * *
Volume 1 in the Series
of
GERMANIC STUDIES
from
Columbia University