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Published 01/10/24
1bailc f. [b̥al̥kʲ], gen. bailce -[ə], ‘ridge between furrows; strip of unploughed land; boundary; landmark’. McDonald (2009, 340) views a derivation of SG bailc and Ir. balc from ON bálkr ‘partition, wall’ as likely. The vowel of ON balkr, bǫlkr m. ‘partition, stall, section’ (NO) was short, but long in Ice. bálkr ‘partition (wall)’ (Cleasby 1874). Balc does not seem to occur in Early Irish, but modern Ir. balc ‘balk, beam’ (Ó Dónaill 1977), ‘balk; (Connemara: balca) harrow-bar’ (Dinneen 1947)
The senses ‘hard substance, anything strong, hard etc.’ are from a nominalised form of the adjective EG balc, later bailc (Ir. bailc, SG bailc), ‘stout, strong, sturdy, firm, vigorous, powerful’ (eDIL˄), for which Vendryes (1996) notes cognates W balch, C balgh and Bret. bal’ch. Quiggin (1906, 13, §25) connects the Irish verbal noun balcadh m. in the sense ‘act of fucking’ with Ir. balcaim ‘I force, drive, impel etc.’ (a derivative of EG balc adj.), and compares Ir. bonn balcaidh ‘a collection made to pay for whiskey etc. at a gathering or dance on the first Sunday after a wedding’, although it is tempting to draw a parallel between Ir. balc ‘balk, beam’ and balcadh ‘fucking’ on the one hand and Eng. shaft ‘rod’ etc. and its slang use as a noun and verb in the sense ‘(to) fuck’ on the other (OED˄, s.v. shaft 2vb).
is derived from ON balkr (leg. balk acc.) by Meyer (1891, 460,
Citing Ice. bjálki m. ‘balk, beam’; cf. ON bjalki m. ‘beam’.
citing O’Reilly 1864: ‘stop, balk’), while Craigie (1894, 156–57: ‘beam’
Citing Ice. bálkr.
) derives both Irish and Scottish Gaelic ba(i)lc from ON balk acc. De Vries (1962) adopts Craigie’s view, but Marstrander (1915a, 121) derives Ir. balc from MEng. balke (OED˄), while MacBain (1911), who compares W balc (< MEng. (GPC˄)), derives SG bailc from modern Eng. balk.
SG bailc’s relatively late attestation (MacDomhnuill 1741, 93: ‘bailc no bonncart
MacDomhnuill gives SG bonncart as a synonym of SG bailc; later this becomes a further gaelicised bonnchart (as though it were a closed compound with lenition of the generic element), meaning ‘balk, land between two furrows’ (HSS 1828; Dwelly 1911), ‘balk, land between two ridges’ (An Deo-Ghréine I, 1906, Earrann 12, 198), ‘balk, ridge left unploughed, landmark’ (MacLennan 1925). SG bonncart appears to be a loan from Scots bunkart ‘chest, window-seat; earthen seat in the fields; low bank at a road side, road-side channel; large heap of stones, clay etc.’ (SND˄, s.v. bunker).
“balk”’) and its range of meanings (‘ridge between furrows; strip of unploughed land; boundary; landmark’) suggest a derivation from Scots 2balk (in DOST˄, attested in this spelling as late as 1691, as opposed to bauk etc., attested as early as 1475) ‘ridge or unploughed strip lying between two portions of ploughed land’ (SND˄, s.v. 2bauk), although a derivation from Eng. balk is also possible: ‘(I) a ridge generally, a dividing ridge; a bar: a ridge, heap, or mound upon the ground; e.g. a grave-mound; a dividing ridge (of land); an isthmus; a bar of sand, etc.; (II) a ridge left in ploughing; a miss, slip: a ridge between two furrows, or a strip of ground left unploughed as a boundary line between two ploughed portions; a ridge or piece left unploughed by accident or carelessness; a piece missed in ploughing’ (OED˄). Ir. balc is perhaps more likely to be from English.
The predominant forms in Scottish Gaelic and Irish are bailc and balc, respectively, although both are found in each language. In the case of Scottish Gaelic, the palatalised consonant cluster in bailc could be seen as a normalised dative form of a radical feminine balc. In both Scottish Gaelic and Irish, however, bailc forms may have been promoted by association with the native word bailc (s.v. 2bailc).