An Etymological Dictionary of Scotland's Norse

Preface

The following dictionary was an act of love from Sorcha of Uist to the dying tongue of her family. Collected here is Scots Norse as spoken by the youngest natives in the Western Isles, it was Sorcha's earnest wish to collect the language of the Inner Isles as well, but she was rendered bedridden by dementia. Her last wishes for this work were to have it finalized, a task taken on by her closest friend, Dorcha.

This version of the text is a modernization of the original, mostly updating the phonetic transcriptions and etymologies, but at times updating other things.

(This text is not completed, nor anywhere near to it)

The words of Scots Norse

A.

-a, [ə], suf.; used in the formation of adverbs, originally only from adjectives but expanded to everything; From Old Norse -a; the preservation of this suffix is entirely unexpected, as it would have been lost had sound changes applied regularly.

-a-, [ə], aff.; used in the formation of the past and stative of verbs; Probably from Old Norse -að-

a, [ə], n. m.; fragrance, that which smells good; From Old Norse ang

aer, [ˈəɾʲ], n. f.; mind, ability to reason; Of Gaelic origin, possibly Old Irish aire

Aghar, [ˈəːɾ], n. m. pl.; *Agðir*, a name for the Hebrides; Probably means “Land of storms” or “Land of rain”; From Old Norse Agðir

-air, [ɛːɾʲ], aff.; forms the past of verbs; From Old Norse -aðir

-aist, [ɛːʃː], aff.; forms the stative of verbs; From Old Norse -aðisk

aldh, SW. [əɫ] NW. [əw], adj.; old; n. m.; age; Probably from Old English ald, Anglian variant of eald

almh, SW. [ˈəɫv] NW. [ˈəwv], n. m/f; elm tree; From Old Norse almr

Anghunn, [ˈə.ɣɤn], n. m.; a male name, corresponding to Faroese Øgmundur; From Old Norse Ǫgmundr

-ar, [əɾ], aff.; forms the regular plural of nouns; From Old Norse -ar and -ir

arvh, [əɾ], n. f.; heiress; From Old Norse arfa

asc, [əsk], n. m.; ash tree; From Old Norse askr

at, [ət], prep.; 1) at, to; 2) according to; 3) from (when recieving something); From Old Norse at

av, [əv] or [əu], prep.; of, from, off, by; From Old Norse af

av-, [əv] or [əu], aff.; 1) away, off, from, away from; 2) excessively, negatively; From Old Norse af-