v1.0
Published 01/10/24
campar m. [ˈkʰãũm̥paɾ],
Cf. (Lewis) [kɑ̃ũ̟mpɑɾ], [kɑ̃ũ̟mpɑð] (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄).
[ˈkʰãũmb̥aɾ],
Cf. (Glengarry) [kä(au)mːbar] (Dieckhoff 1932). AFB˄ gives /kãũmbər/ [sic].
gen. campair -[æɾʲ], -[ɛɾʲ], in the sense ‘hindrance, annoyance’ is derived by Mackay (1897, 92) from Ice. kampr ‘crest or front wall’ (ON kampr).
McDonald (2009, 369) conflates campar with SG cambar ‘crest’ (s.v.) and camp ‘overhang’ (s.v.).
In addition to Mackay’s ‘hindrance’, SG campar has the senses ‘anger,
Shaw 1780; Armstrong 1825; HSS 1828; MacLeod and Dewar 1833; MacEachen 1842; Dwelly 1911; Dieckhoff 1932; AFB˄.
annoyance,
AFB˄.
vexation,
Mac Farlan 1795; MacFarlane 1815, s.v. càmpar; Armstrong 1825; HSS 1828; McAlpine 1832; MacLeod and Dewar 1833; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; AFB˄; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Lewis, and in ’s e chuir e an campar orm ‘he really irked me’, Lewis.
fret,
Armstrong 1825.
uneasiness,
McAlpine 1832; MacLeod and Dewar 1833; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925.
grief,
Shaw 1780; MacFarlane 1815, s.v. càmpar; Armstrong 1825; HSS 1828; McAlpine 1832; MacLeod and Dewar 1833; MacEachen 1842; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925.
sorrow
MacLeod and Dewar 1833; Dwelly 1911.
and sadness’.
MacEachen 1842.
However, MacBain (1896; 1911) and Henderson (1896 II, 327, 330) derive SG campar from Scots cummer (MacBain: cummar), also cumber, ‘hindrance; action of troubling, disturbing or embarassing; quarrelling etc.’ (SND˄).
HSS 1828 gives a folk etymological derivation from SG cam ‘crooked, bent’ + tuar ?‘hardship’; so also MacLeod and Dewar 1833.
MacLennan (1925) suggests campar goes back to EG campar ‘contention, quarrel’, but this seems to be a conflation of SG campar and EG caimpear, campar ‘warrior, champion’, a derivative of EG cám (Vendryes 1996: caimper, campar), s.v. caparaid: SG campur ‘champion’ is listed in Shaw 1780, but seems either to have been already obsolescent or to have been adopted from Irish.
Cf. O’Clery 1643: caimpear ‘champion’; Lhuyd 1707: †caimpear ‘idem’; O’Reilly 1817: caimpear ‘idem’; Dinneen 1947: idem ‘warrior’; Ó Dónaill 1977: idem ‘champion’. O’Reilly lists campar ‘grief, vexation’ and camparach ‘vexatious, grievous, troublesome’, but these seem to have been adopted from Scottish Gaelic.
The Scots etymon is likely to have been cumber, unless the medial plosive in Gaelic was intrusive, cf. SG slaman ‘curds’ (< EG slamm), (Islay) slamban (McAlpine 1832; cf. Calder 1972, 66); it is just possible, of course, that campar with medial [m̥p] (as opposed to [mb̥]) was influenced by an obsolescent campar ‘champion’ (Shaw’s campur), assuming the latter is not a ghost word.
Derivatives: SG camparach ‘angry, vexatious, grievous, troublesome etc.’, with the adjectival suffix -ach; camparachd f. ‘vexation, grief etc.’, with the abstract noun suffix -achd; and seemingly camparaid ‘bustle’ (Dwelly 1911), ‘bustle, a slight quarrel’ (MacLennan 1925), for whose ending s.v. caparaid fn 2.