v1.0
Published 01/10/24
Symbols and Abbreviations
| A green tick indicates that a word is likely, or more than likely, to be a loan from Old Norse; a red cross indicates that a word is unlikely to be, or more than likely not to be, a loan from Old Norse; an amber question mark indicates that it is uncertain whether or not a word is a loan from Old Norse. (Given that we have to admit a degree of, or at least the possibility of, uncertainty at all times, it would be logical (if unhelpful) to label all words amber; instead, where at all possible, words have been labelled either green or red. Of course, further evidence may come to light that will require changing the label applied to a particular word.) | |
| ˄ | hovering the cursor over this symbol reveals the date an online source was accessed |
| * | unattested |
| ~ | alternating with |
| < | introduces a loan-word; more loosely, ‘derives from’ |
| ← | introduces a loan-shift; more loosely, ‘derives from (omitting one or more stages)’ |
| ⇐ | introduces a loan-blend |
| + | and; and (in the same case) |
| ͡ | stressed epenthesis |
| ≈ | symbol indicating a change in the quotation, usually due to current orthographic conventions |
| ⁊ | for Lat. et and used as an abbreviation for EG ocus, acus, Ir. and SG agus ‘and’ |
| .i. | for Lat. id est and used as an abbreviation for EG eḋ-ón, Ir. and SG eadhon in the sense ‘namely’, ‘that is’ |
| acc. | accusative: the accusative case |
| AD | = Lat. anno Domini ‘in the year of the Lord’ |
| adj. | adjective |
| AFB | Am Faclair Beag – see Bibliography |
| AN | Anglo-Norman |
| App. | Appendix |
| approx. | approximately |
| AU | Annals of Ulster |
| ḃ ḋ ḟ ġ ṁ ṡ | symbols used in this book in order to represent certain lenited consonants in Early Gaelic |
| Bm. | Bokmål |
| Bret. | Breton |
| c. | (before a numeral) = Lat. circa ‘around, about’; century |
| C | Cornish; consonant |
| Can. Eng. | Canadian English |
| CE | The Common Era |
| Celt. | Celtic |
| cf. | = Lat. confer ‘compare’ |
| CG | Carmina Gadelica – see Bibliography |
| Chap(p). | Chapter(s) |
| CSc. | Common Scandinavian |
| Dan. | Danish |
| dat. | dative: the dative case |
| dial. | dialectal |
| DOST | Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue – see Bibliography |
| DSL | Dictionary of the Scots Language – see Bibliography |
| Dut. | Dutch |
| ECC | Eachdraidh le Càirdeas is Cridhe – see Bibliography |
| eDIL | Dictionary of the Irish Language – see Bibliography |
| e.g. | = Lat. exempli gratia ‘for example’ |
| EG | Early Gaelic |
| Eng. | English |
| EScots | Early Scots |
| et al. | = Lat. et alia ‘and others’ |
| etc. | = Lat. et cetera ‘and the remainder’, i.e. ‘and so on’ |
| f. | feminine: the feminine gender in grammar |
| Far. | Faroese |
| ff. | and following |
| fl. | = Lat. floruit ‘[the time] when someone flourished’ |
| fn(n) | footnote(s) |
| Fr. | French |
| Fris. | Frisian |
| ft | foot/feet |
| gen. | genitive: the genitive case |
| Germ. | German |
| Goth. | Gothic |
| Gr. | Greek |
| Green. | Greenlandic |
| Heb. | Hebrew |
| Hiberno-Eng. | Hiberno-English |
| HSS | Highland Society of Scotland – see Bibliography |
| Ice. | Icelandic |
| i.e. | = Lat. id est ‘that is’ |
| ibid. | = Lat. ibidem ‘in the same source’ |
| idem | Lat. ‘the same’ |
| IE | Indo-European |
| in | inch(es) |
| Ir. | Irish (Gaelic) |
| It. | Italian |
| km | kilometre(s) |
| Lat. | Latin |
| Late Lat. | Late Latin |
| leg. | = Lat. lege ‘read [as follows]’ |
| len. | lenited; lenition |
| lit. | literally |
| m | metre(s) |
| m. | masculine: the masculine gender in grammar |
| MBret. | Middle Breton |
| MC | Middle Cornish |
| MDut. | Middle Dutch |
| MEng. | Middle English |
| MG | Middle Gaelic |
| MLat. | Middle Latin |
| MLGerm. | Middle Low German |
| MNorw. | Middle Norwegian |
| Mod. Ice. | Modern Icelandic |
| MS | manuscript |
| MScots | Middle Scots |
| MW | Middle Welsh |
| Mx | Manx (Gaelic) |
| n.d. | no date |
| NGR | National Grid Reference |
| NLS | National Library of Scotland |
| nMO | notes by Magne Oftedal |
| Nn. | Nynorsk, the form of Norwegian that ‘has its strongholds in western and midland Norway’ (Haugen 1984, §2.1) |
| No. | Number |
| nom. | nominative: the nominative case |
| Norw. | Norwegian |
| NSA | New Statistical Account – see Bibliography |
| nt. | neuter: the neuter gender in grammar |
| obl. | oblique (not in the nominative case) |
| OBret. | Old Breton |
| OED | Oxford English Dictionary – see Bibliography |
| OEng. | Old English |
| OFr. | Old French |
| OFris. | Old Frisian |
| OG | Old Gaelic |
| OHGerm. | Old High German |
| OIce. | Old Icelandic |
| ON | Old Norse = Old West Scandinavian |
| ONorw. | Old Norwegian |
| OPR | Old Parish Registers – see Bibliography |
| OPS | Origines Parochiales Scotiae – see Bibliography |
| OS | Ordnance Survey (previously, Board of Ordnance) |
| OScots | Older Scots |
| OSNB | Ordnance Survey Name Book |
| OSw. | Old Swedish |
| OWNorn | Old West Norn |
| p./pp. | page(s) |
| pace | Lat., i.e. ‘with due respect to, though disagreeing with’ |
| para. | paragraph(s) |
| pers. comm. | personal communication |
| pers. name | personal name |
| Pict. | Pictish |
| PIE | Proto-Indo-European |
| pl./plur. | plural: the plural number in grammar |
| PN | a Scottish Place-Name Survey recording, School of Scottish Studies Archive, University of Edinburgh |
| PNIM | Place Names of the Isle of Man – see Bibliography |
| Pnn. | Place-names |
| Pre-Lit. Scots | Pre-Literary Scots |
| Pt(s) | Part(s); Point(s) |
| pub. | published |
| q.v. | = Lat. quod vide ‘which see’ |
| rad. | radical: (1) primary form, (2) radical case (i.e. including nominative and accusative cases) |
| RC | Richard Cox |
| repr. | reprint |
| sb. | substantive (noun) |
| SG | Scottish Gaelic |
| sg./sing. | singular: the singular number in grammar |
| SGDS | Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland – see Bibliography |
| sic | = Lat. sic erat scriptum ‘that was how it was written’ |
| SND | Scottish National Dictionary – see Bibliography |
| SSPN | Saints in Scottish Place-Names – see Bibliography |
| s. v(v). | = Lat. sub verbo/verbis ‘[see] under the word(s)’ |
| Sw. | Swedish |
| v | version: Later versions indicate that one or more additions or substantive changes have been made to an entry, e.g. v2.0 indicates that more or less significant changes have been made to an earlier version of an entry (in this case, v1.0). Increments of versions indicate that spelling, grammatical and/or syntactical errors or omissions have been silently corrected, e.g. v1.1 indicates that insignificant changes have been made to an earlier version of an entry (in this case, v1.0). |
| V, V̆, V̄, Ṽ̄ | vowel, long vowel, short vowel, long nasal vowel |
| vb | verb |
| viz | = Lat. videlicet ‘namely’ |
| VLat. | Vulgar Latin |
| voc. | vocative: the vocative case |
| Vol(s)/vol(s) | Volume(s)/volume(s) |
| W | Welsh |
| WFris. | West Frisian |