v1.0
Published 01/10/24
amulaid ‘unsteady person’. This word is cited in Mackay 1897, 92, and derived from Ice. amloði m. ‘weak person’; McDonald (2009, 338) considers the borrowing uncertain. In support, Mackay suggests that Rob Donn’s amuelteach (sic) ‘ludicrous’ might derive from the same root. In a foreword to the poem ‘Briogais Mhic Ruairidh’, Rob Donn’s editor describes how the poet asked, ‘An do thachair ni amhuilteach ’s am bith ’n am measg o thòisich a’ bhanais?’ (the answer to which was the inspiration for the poem), and amhuilteach is glossed ‘àbhachdach, neònach; ludicrous, strange’ (Mackay 1829, 220–24: 21, 351). ON Amloði m., the name of a mythical Danish king (whence the name Hamlet (Cleasby 1874; NO)), so Ice. amloði and Nn. amlod ‘poor creature’, is unlikely to yield a final plosive in Gaelic, while an original post-stress -ml would be expected to yield stressed epenthesis (svarabhakti), albeit the interpolating vowel would not be written,
Pace McDonald ibid.
cf. imlich f. [ˈĩm͡ĩliç] ‘licking’ (EG imlíġe). Given that Mackay’s (1897) text has amlodi for amloði and amuelteach for amhailteach, the form amulaid, which does not seem to occur in standard lexical works (McDonald ibid.), is itself uncertain, but at any rate amulaid
Or even *amhlaid, ?cf amhlair ‘fool’ etc.
could not formally derive from ON amloði.
Assuming the spelling amulaid (for amalaid) is intentional, there may be a connection with early modern Irish amal m. ‘fool, simpleton’ (eDIL˄, s.v. 1amal, with unlenited m).