ONlwSG

² *brat adj. *[b̥ɾaʰt̪] ‘steep’. Scottish Gaelic place-names consisting of (or containing) Old Norse loan-names such as Brataigea NB239473 and Bratabridh NB408099 (< ON *Brattugjá acc./dat. ‘[the] steep ravine’ and *Brattabergi dat. ‘[the] steep rock’), in Lewis, provide examples of ON brattr ‘steep’ in use within the Old Norse onomasticon of the Hebrides. However, there may be evidence that the adjective brattr (or the stem form bratt-) was itself borrowed into Scottish Gaelic: bratag ‘?steep place’, ?< SG *brat + the diminutive suffix -ag, used as a suffix of place (cf. SG loibhteag ‘sodden or miry place, < SG loibhte ‘decayed, rotten’) occurs in a number of names in Lewis: Rubha Brataig NB068379 ‘the promontory of—’, in Uig; Rubhaichean Brataig NB132405 ‘the promontories of—’ and Àirigh Brataig NB179347 ‘the sheiling of—’, in Bernera; and Bratag NB189422 and NB182436, on the West Side. At each location, the sense ‘steep place’ is appropriate.

Cf. Cox 2002a, bratag: 190, loibhteag: 59, 337; so also McDonald (2009, 345; 2015, 155–56). The sense of the specific element in the name Meall Brataig NG445749, in Skye, is uncertain.