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Published 01/10/24
bacstoc m. [ˈb̥aʰkˌs̪t̪ɔʰk], gen. bacstuic [s̪t̪ʉʰkʲ], ‘runner (engineering)’ (AFB˄), ‘the slip (where boats are built)’ (Borgstrøm 1937, 106). Borgstrøm (ibid.) records (Barra) ‘([b̥ɑxkstɔxk]), plur. [nə b̥ɑxkstu̇çk´] ..., ON bakkastokkar’, a compound of the genitive of ON bakki m. in the sense ‘ground’ and the plural of ON stokkr m. in the sense ‘(piece of) timber, log’.
Pers. comm. Professor Tom Schmidt.
The Old Norse term was plural and referred to timbers placed under the keel when launching a boat; this might be a permanent installation or loose timbers turned little by little as the boat moved forward.
Pers. comm. Professor Arne Emil Christensen.
However, ON bakkastokka acc. pl. would probably yield SG *[ˈb̥aʰkəˌs̪t̪ɔʰk], with apocope, rather than [ˈb̥aʰkˌs̪t̪ɔʰk], and the etymon may have been the variant form bakkstokka (Jonsson 1863: bakkstokkar nom.). SG bacstoc was presumably borrowed as a collective noun but has since acquired singulative status, hence plural bacstuic as an o-stem noun in Gaelic.