v1.0
Published 01/10/24
bodhaig f. [ˈb̥o-iɡ̊ʲ],
Cf. [bo-ig] (MacLennan 1925), /bo.ɪgʲ/ (AFB˄), (Gairloch) [b̥ö.uk’] (Wentworth 2003, s.v. body), (Easter Ross) /bo-iɡ/ (Watson 2022, 124).
gen. bodhaige -[ə], ‘(living) body; physique; body of a car, hulk of a boat etc.’ (cf. AFB˄). McDonald (2009, 347) considers an Old Norse provenance for this word unlikely, but notes that MacBain (1911), in deriving it from Scots bouk ‘body’, also mentions Old Norse búkr m. ‘body, trunk’. However, the latter, along with Germ. Bauch, is only cited as a cognate.
≈MacBain 1911: ‘from the Scots bouk “body, trunk”, ON búkr “trunk”, Germ. bauch “belly” ’.
ON búk acc. would formally yield SG *[b̥u̟ːɡ̊], *[b̥uːɡ̊]; Scots bouk [buk] would formally yield SG *[b̥u̟ɡ̊], *[b̥uɡ̊] or *[b̥u̟ʰk], *[b̥uʰk]. SG bodhaig already occurs in a Maclean poem (Ó Baoill 1979, 70, line 843) dated to between 1703 and 1707 (pp. 235–38: 238)
‘Òran do dh’Alasdair Mac an Easbuig’ (ibid., 68–71), by Anndra Mac an Easbuig c.1635–c.1718 (lii–lxi: lx).
and may well derive from MScots bouik, bowik ‘the carcass of a slaughtered animal; the body of a (living or dead) person’ (DOST˄, s.v. 1bouk).
Watson (1929, 284) derives SG bodhaig from Eng. body, but this is inexplicable.
There has been further adaptation, however: to bodhag (Armstrong 1825; (Islay) [bȯh´-hȧg] (McAlpine 1832, s.v. bodhaig), on the analogy of Scottish Gaelic words with the suffix -ag, and to boghainn (McAlpine: m. [bo´-hyėnn]; MacLennan 1925: m. [bo-’in]; AFB˄: f. /bo.ɪNʲ/), on the analogy of SG colainn f. ‘body’ (EG idem).