v1.0
Published 01/10/24
biota f.
Although McAlpine (1832) and MacLennan (1925) give masculine, the latter cites (≈)biota bhùirn ‘water pail’, which suggests that biota is feminine.
[ˈb̥iʰt̪ə],
Cf. (Lewis) [bịʰṭ (-ṭə)] (LASID IV, 189, Item 21 (e)), [bıt̪ə], leg. [bıʰt̪ə] (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄), /bihdə/ (AFB˄), (Skye) [bėtt´-a] (McAlpine 1832).
gen. idem, ‘butter churn; vessel; wooden pail’ is derived from ON bytta f. ‘bucket, pail’ regularly.
MacBain (1896), Henderson (1910, 119), Marstrander (1915a, 121), MacLennan (1925), Stewart (2004, 408), McDonald (2009, 348) and Ó Muirithe (2010, 14). Christiansen (1938, 5, 21: bita) compares Norw. butt (see below), although ON bytta yields Nn. bytte, Bm. bøtte.
SG buta in the sense ‘wooden dish (St Kilda)’ is also derived from ON bytta,
Henderson (1910, 13–14); so also Bugge (1912, 302), who also derives Ir. búta (sic) ‘tun[, cask]’ (quoting O’Reilly) from ON bytta. O’Reilly (1864) in fact gives bútá in Gaelic script (erroneously) and buta in Roman script (correctly), cf. Ó Dónaill (1977: buta).
but Marstrander (1915a, 121) prefers Norwegian dialectal butt ‘open vessel’, under the influence of bytta.
‘Det er nærmest n.d. butt, paavirket i utlyden av bytta’ (although McDonald (2009, 348) interprets ‘n.d.’ as ny dansk ‘Modern Danish’).
Shaw (1780) lists SG buta in the senses ‘short ridge; tun; boot’, but HSS (1828) gives bùta ‘butt, mark, object; short ridge; tun; clown, morose passionate fellow’, with a lengthmark, as does MacLeod and Dewar (1839: ‘butt, mark, object; clown’) and Dwelly (1911: ‘butt, mark, object; clown; short ridge; tun’), although Dwelly also lists (Skye) butta
Corrected to buta in AFB˄.
m. ‘butt (measure)’, without a lengthmark; cf. buta m. ‘buoy, float; butt (measure, half a tun)’ (AFB˄).
For SG buta in the sense ‘wooden dish’, we can compare Scots (Orkney) butto ‘a small wooden cog or vessel with a lid, used for keeping butter in’, itself from ON bytta (Marwick 1929, s.v.). SG buta in the sense ‘tun, cask; measure’, however, is likely to be from Scots but, butt ‘a butt or cask’ (DOST˄, s.v. 4but).
For SG buta in the sense ‘short ridge’, cf. OScots 1but etc. ‘a ridge or strip of ploughed land’, s.v. bot, para. (4) but. For SG buta in the sense ‘boot’, we should perhaps read bùta (Shaw omits lengthmarks), i.e. for or an early variant of bòt(a), from MScots bute etc. ‘boot’ (DOST˄, s.v. 2bute). For SG buta in the sense ‘butt, mark, object’, and by extension ‘clown’, cf. OScots but, butt etc., cf. the sense ‘mound for supporting a target’ (DOST˄, s.v. 2but), s.v. SG bot, para. (2): bot, bota. For SG buta in the sense ‘buoy, float’, s.v. put.
Henderson notes (ibid.) that SG ‘bōtaidh, as in b. mine “a small cask of meal”’ (cf. MacLeod and Dewar 1839: bòtaidh f. ‘wooden vessel of the size of half an anker [a measure of wine and spirits]’) has a different origin, but without further explanation. Bòtaidh is no doubt a variant of botaidh (HSS 1828: f. ‘wooden vessel containing about 5 or 6 gallons; botaidh mùinn (sic) ‘pot de chambre’; MacLennan 1925: m. [boty] ‘a chamber vessel’), which MacBain (1911) sees as formed from MEng. butte, Eng. butt, Fr. botte, in the sense ‘cask’. However, SG bòtaidh and botaidh seem likely phonetically to represent Scots pottie ‘potty’, dim. of pot ‘pot, vessel; chamber pot’ (DOST˄, SND˄, s.v. 1pot), although semantically there may have been conflation with SG buta in the sense ‘cask’.