v1.0
Published 01/10/24
being f. [b̥ẽĩŋʲɡ̊ʲ],
(Lewis) /bẽĩɴ´ɡ´/ (Oftedal 1956, 139); (Glengarry) [béi(ng)ˈgˈj] (Dieckhoff 1932: beinge); (Islay) [peŋ] (Holmer 38, 127); (Kintyre) (len.) [veŋ´(ː)] (Holmer 1962, 23); (Gairloch) [b̥[ɑ̃ĩ]ŋ’ɡ̊’] (Wentworth 2003); AFB˄ /beiŋʲgʲ/.
,
Also beinge -[ə] (HSS 1828: beince, beinge; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Skye, Barra, Harris).
gen. beinge -[ə], dat. being, beingidh -[i] (the latter form sometimes normalised as the radical form), ‘bench; board or bench at the side of a bed’.
Islay (≈Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: tha e na shuidhe air a’ bheingidh ‘he is sitting on the edge of the bed’; Holmer 1938, 127: ‘bedside’) and Kintyre (Holmer 1962, 23: [har ə veŋ´(ː)] ‘out of bed’, although it is not clear in this example whether [ə] represents the masculine article (although being is normally feminine): thar a’ bheing (in the genitive after the preposition thar), or whether [ə] is epenthetic: thar bheing (with lenition after the preposition)).
Mackenzie (1910, 383) derives SG being from ON bekkr (leg. bekk acc.) m. ‘bench’, and notes a Lewis (Carloway) form beic. MacLennan (1925: being), Christiansen (1938, 5, 19–20: bing
The spelling bing may indicate a Gaelic pronunciation *[b̥ẽ̝ĩŋʲɡ̊ʲ].
) and Stewart (2004, 408: being) also give ON bekk, and McDonald (2009, 341) thinks the derivation likely; cf. Mx beck ‘thwart’ < ON bekk (Marstrander 1932, 49
So also de Vries 1962.
). Yet ON bekk would formally yield SG *[b̥eʰkʲ], cf. ON klett (kletti) acc. (dat.) > SG cleit(e) [ˈkʰleʰtʲ(ə)] (Cox 2022, 147).
However, Oftedal (1956, 139) notes MacBain’s (1911) derivation of SG being from Scots bink ‘bench’ (earlier benk, < OEng. benc), and this development would be regular.
For Mackenzie’s Lewis form beic, we should probably read baoic [b̥əiʰkʲ], cf. Lewis (Uig) baoic [b[ɤı]c] ‘wooden bench used in blackhouses for sitting on’ and baoicean [b[ɤı]cɛ̃ṉ]
With the Gaelic suffix -an.
‘bench in a house; one used for a person who procured a house or croft through marriage’
The extended sense here seems likely to have arisen from personal experience.
(Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄). SG baoic is possibly a normalised dative form (with vowel affection, [au] > [əi], before the palatalised velar) of an unattested SG *[b̥auʰk], a loan from Scots balk ‘beam of wood; bench: seat in a boat or house’, with vocalisation of the lateral in Gaelic (SND˄: 1bauk, balk etc., < ON bjalki m. ‘beam’).
eDIL˄ tentatively suggests EG bein(n)se, beindsi, bin(n)se m. ‘bench’ is a loan from Eng. bench;
While Risk (1974, 68) suggests the form EG béinse in the sense ‘company’ has a French origin.
cf. Ir. binse m. (Ó Dónaill 1977) and SG beinnse (Dwelly 1911).