ONlwSG

bot
1. SG bot m. [b̥ɔʰt̪], 

Cf. /bɔhd/ (AFB^˄); (Lewis) [bɔt̪] (sic) (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄); Henderson (1910, 206), however, has ‘bot (with a close ọ)’.

gen. bota, 

AFB^˄.

‘basin at the head of a loch or valley; soft bog, morass; deep pool or channel in the moor’ appears to derive regularly from ON botn m. ‘the head of a loch or valley, basin’ (Mackenzie 1910, 370–71, 383; MacMillan (in Christiansen 1938, 24 (so de Vries 1962)); Cox 1991, 492; 1992, 138; 2002a, 186–87; McDonald 2009, 344; 2015a, 155), cf. (in borrowed place-names) SG -bhat [ ̩vaʰt̪] < ON -vatn nt. ‘loch’.

Henderson (1910, 206) compares SG bot ‘bog, morass’ with Scots (Shetland) bøti ‘strip of land, specially a peat-bank, also a strip of grassland’ (Jakobsen 1928, s.v. ²bødi), but neither the semantic nor phonetic development seems likely.

The diminutive form botan m. [ˈb̥ɔʰt̪an] occurs (Cox 2002a, 187), as well as the n-stem derivative SG botann m. [ˈb̥ɔʰt̪əᵰ̪], 

Cf. /bɔhdəN/ (AFB^˄), [bɔt̪ən̪] (sic) (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄).

cf. SG leac f. ‘flat stone’ > leacann f. ‘slope etc.’.

Although MacBain (1911: botunn) and McDonald (2009, 344; 2015a, 155) derive botann directly from ON botn. The cluster tn yields preaspirate SG [ʰt̪] with assimilation of the nasal, otherwise, assuming vowel epenthesis and retention of the nasal, SG *[ˈb̥ɔd̪̥ən] would be expected.

Botan is recorded in Lewis (Cox ibid.); botann in Lewis (AFB^˄; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄) and Skye (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄); bot in Lewis, 

Mackenzie 1910, 370–71, 383; Cox 2002a, ibid.; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄; Christiansen 1938, 5, 24; AFB^˄.

Skye and North Uist (AFB^˄) and, in the form bota, in Harris (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄ 

The informant Aonghas Caimbeul (Am Puilean, 1903–1982) was born and lived for most of his life in Ness in Lewis, but in his youth spent a number of years in Bernera in Harris, where his father was a missionary.

); but there may be some conflation with a similar word or words. M^cAlpine (1832) cites SG bot f. [bŏt] in the senses ‘house; river bank’; Dwelly (1911) gives bot m. in the senses ‘mound; bothy, house; river bank’; 

So MacLennan (1925).

Henderson (1910, 206) notes SG bot in the senses ‘mound, river bank’ and ‘soft bog or morass’; while Christiansen (ibid., 24) compares SG bot ‘basin, bog’ with Dwelly’s bot ‘river bank’. It seems likely, however, that the senses ‘basin, bog’, ‘mound, river bank’ and ‘bothy, house’ have disparate origins, although there may have been some merging of sense and form over time.

2. SG bot, 

M^cAlpine 1832: [bŏt].

bota 

(Harris, North Uist, Skye, KiIlearn), [bɔt̪ə] (sic) (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄), (Gairloch) [b̥ohtə] (Wentworth 2003).

^,  

Fem. in M^cAlpine 1832 and Mac Gill-Fhinnein 2009; masc. in Dwelly 1911 and Wentworth 2003.

has its basic sense ‘mound’ (Dwelly; MacLennan; Mac Gill-Fhinnein, 112: ‘mound; mound of small peats’; McDonald 1972: ‘hump’) extended to ‘hillock’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄), cf. bota-sheangan ‘anthill’ (ibid.); more commonly to ‘raised bit of turf’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄; McDonald 1972) or ‘tuft of heather’ (Mac Gill-Fhinnein, 112); more commonly still to ‘broken land either on the moor or where the sea comes in; broken, bare spot of moorland; unused bog with a peat face (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄); peat hag (Wentworth); peat bank (McDonald 1972); river bank (M^cAlpine; Dwelly; MacLennan; Mac Gill-Fhinnein, 63, line 169); sandbank (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄)’, cf. bota-mòine ‘peat bog’ (ibid.). This word may well derive from OScots but, butt etc. (cf. the sense ‘mound for supporting a target’ (DOST^˄, s.v. ²but)), Scots butt (cf. the sense ‘(in grouse-shooting) a wall or bank of earth erected for the purpose of hiding the guns’ (SND^˄, s.v. ²butt)). The derivative forms SG †botach f. ‘reedy bog, fen’ (Dwelly) and botag f. ‘sun-dried crack; narrow channel; wet or soft channel in a peat moss’ (Dwelly App.) may well belong here.

3. SG bot in the sense ‘bothy, house’ (M^cAlpine; Dwelly; MacLennan) is unlikely to be from Scots ¹böd etc. ‘booth, shed’ (SND^˄), because the latter has a long vowel. Unless it is an extension of SG but, below, it may simply be a truncation of Scots but and ben in the sense ‘small cottage’ (SND^˄, s.v. ¹but, butt: V. ‘two-roomed cottage’).

4. SG but ‘field; croft’ is found in a number of place-names in Bute, e.g. But an Lòin ‘the field of the marsh’, and is compared by Henderson in discussing his derivation of SG bot ‘bog, morass’ from Scots bøti, above. Several names containing this element are listed by Hewison (1893, 34, esp. 291–92: ‘small field’), and a smaller number by Maxwell (1894, 63: ‘croft’). Maxwell suggests unclearly that SG but preserves ‘a form intermediate between Gaelic both [“hut, bothy”] and Pictish pett [“land holding, farm”]’, while Henderson suggests that ‘if native[, SG but] ... is a variant of W bod “residence”, cognate with SG both’. However, SG but is probably a loan from Scots ¹butt, but (SND^˄) in the sense ‘small piece of ground’, from OScots ¹but etc. ‘a ridge or strip of ploughed land; a piece of ground which in ploughing does not form a proper ridge, but is excluded as an angle; a small piece of ground disjoined in whatever manner from the adjacent lands’ (DOST^˄).