v1.0
Published 01/10/24
caparaid in the sense ‘wrangling’ is derived by Mackay (1897, 92: capparaid [sic]) from Ice. kapp nt. ‘contest, zeal, eagerness, energy’ (Cleasby 1874), citing kappord (leg. kapp-orðr) ‘wrangling’ and kapprodr (leg. kapp-róðr) ‘a rowing match’. McDonald (2009, 369) links Mackay’s form with SG càpraid ‘drunken riotousness’ (MacBain 1911), SG capaireadh ‘capering, cutting capers’ (Dwelly 1911) and EG cám ‘battle, conflict, encounter’ (eDIL˄), but considers that, on semantic grounds, the Scottish Gaelic forms most likely derive from Eng. caper. A number of words appear to have been conflated.
I. EG cám ‘battle, conflict, encounter’
Meyer (1891, 460) suggests that EG cám is a loan from a ‘prehistoric’ [CSc.] *kamp (> ON kapp, Sw. and Dan. kamp ‘contest’). Stokes (1893, 53), on the other hand, suggests that it is a loan either from Meyer’s CSc. *kamp or from OEng. camp ‘fight’; Marstrander (1915a, 121) and eDIL˄ concur with Stokes’s OEng. camp.
Stokes comments that the spelling caam (Stokes 1877, clxxvii, 320.10–11: lignum contensionis quod uocatur caam apud gentiles) has not been explained; Marstrander (ibid.) points out that the word has a long vowel.
Stokes (1904, 288, §564) later suggests the word is borrowed from, or cognate with, Lat. campus ‘plain, field’. Vendryes (1996, s.v. cam) prefers a loan from Lat. campus, noting that Germ. Kampf ‘battle’ and W camp ‘feat, exploit etc.’ are borrowed from the same source, as is OEng. camp.
II. SG capaireadh ‘capering, cutting capers’
Dwelly’s (1911) capaireadh ‘capering, cutting capers’ goes back to MacLeod and Dewar’s (1833) †capaireadh ‘cutting capers’, which goes back to Armstrong (1825: capaireadh ‘idem’). The word is no doubt a verbal noun formation in -adh, based on Scots caper ‘to frisk, dance’ (Warrack 1911) or Eng. caper.
III. SG caparaid, càpraid
There are a number of forms:
A. SG cablaid, càblaid, càplaid
A 1. SG cablaid
In Dwelly App.: cablaid ‘hindrance’, although this sense is given under càblaid in AFB˄; MacLennan 1925: [cablej] ‘turmoil, tumult’, also cablaideach ‘tumultuous’; Dieckhoff 1932: see cabraid [see (B) below].
A 2. SG càblaid, càplaid
(i) càblaid (McAlpine 1832: cablain [in error for cablaid = càblaid] [kâb´-llăj] ‘turmoil, tumult’, also cablaideach [= càblaideach] ‘tumultuous’; Dwelly 1911: càblaideach ‘turmoil, tumult’;
(ii) càplaid (AFB˄: càplaid /kaːhbLadʲ/ ‘commotion, tumult, uproar; din’, Barra.
B. SG cabraid, caparaid, càbraid, càpraid, càbrais
B 1. SG cabraid, caparaid
(i) cabraid (Dieckhoff 1932: [kabəredˈj] ‘turmoil’);
(ii) caparaid (Mackay 1897, 92: capparaid [sic] ‘wrangling’; Dwelly App.: caparaid, see càpraid).
B 2. SG càbraid, càpraid, càbrais
(i) càbraid (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘confusion; chattering’, cabraid [leg. càbraid] nan ròn ‘seals squealing’, South Uist);
(ii) càpraid (Dwelly App.: ‘drunken riotousness’; MacBain 1911: idem (dialectal); Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘noisy assembly of the alehouse response to sound in their drinking orgy, or orgies etc.’, Scalpay, ‘hurly-burly – often used of a noisy gathering of people by a person who would rather stay clear of it’, ‘hustle and bustle, turmoil’, ‘usually used when one is right in the middle of hustle and bustle, e.g. a crowd of people’, Lewis, càpraid-òil [‘a drinking crowd’], Scalpay);
(iii) càbrais (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘chattering’, South Uist).
While MacBain (1911) derives càpraid from Lat. crāpŭla ‘drunkenness’, it seems more likely that forms (A–B) constitute a loan-blend from Scots cabal, cabble [kə′bɑl], [kɑbl] ‘a group of people met together for gossip or drinking; a violent dispute’ (< Fr. cabale ‘intrigue’) (SND˄), perhaps formed at least partly on the analogy of SG ùbraid, ùpraid ‘confusion, dispute’, which MacBain (1911) takes back to *ud + bert, with the verbal noun of beiriḋ ‘carries etc.’ (cf. SG ùbairt ‘moving heavy articles, bustle’ (Dwelly 1911), ‘bustle, rummaging among heavy articles’ (MacLennan 1925));
The Scottish Gaelic suffix -aid -[ad̥ʲ], -[ɛd̥ʲ] occurs in a number of other words of similar semantic force, but where the suffix has a different or ?analogous origin: SG aimhreit ‘confusion, disorder etc.’ (cf. Dwelly 1911) (Ir. aimhréidh) < EG aimréiḋ (< am + réiḋ ‘uneven, difficult’); SG brionglaid ‘confusion, wrangling; dream’ (cf. Dwelly 1911) (Ir. brionglóid ‘dream; worry’) < EG brion(n)lóid and, with inorganic g, brin(n)glóid (cf. EG brinn ‘dream, vision, deception’), for which eDIL˄ sees an intermediate brional (?leg. brionál), although note that MacBain (1911) takes the sense ‘wrangle’ to be from Scots or Eng. brangle; SG camparaid ‘bustle, a slight quarrel’ (MacLennan 1925) ?based on SG campar ‘vexation, uneasinesss, grief’, s.v. campar; SG garaid ‘noise, clamour, confusion’ (cf. Dwelly 1911), ‘sputter’ (AFB˄) ?based on SG goir ‘to call, cry, crow’ (cf. EG gairiḋ ‘calls, cries out’, vn gairm, hence SG gairm ‘to call, cry etc.’, vn gairm); SG callaid ‘wrangling noise’ (Ir. callóid) < Lat. collātĭo (s.v. callaid); and SG trioblaid ‘trouble, anxiety etc.’ (Ir. trioblóid) < a late form of Lat. trībŭlātĭo, or perhaps influenced by Eng. tribulation (contrast EG treḃlait (Ir. treabhlaid) < Lat. trībŭlātĭo) (Mc Manus 1983, 29 fn 13, 34–35, 57, 63), which may, along with ùbraid ~ ùpraid, have been influential in promoting analogical use of the suffix.
hence the variation between l ~ r forms (cablaid etc. ~ cabraid etc.), the variation between short and long stressed-vowel forms (cablaid etc. ~ càblaid etc.) and the variation between non-aspirated and preaspirated plosives (cablaid etc. ~ caplaid etc.). For epenthesis in caparaid (B 1(ii)), cf. ùbraid ~ ùbar(r)aid (e.g. MacLennan 1925; Dieckhoff 1932, s.v. ubraid: [uːbəredˈ]); the form càbrais (B 2(iii)) is likely to be idiolectal: càbraid is the usual form in South Uist.
The senses of cablaid etc. are principally ‘confusion, turmoil, commotion, tumult, uproar, din, noise’ and ‘a rowdy drinking assembly, drunken riotousness, wrangling’. Other senses given are ‘chattering’ and ‘hustle and bustle’, but there may be an element of confusion with cabaireachd etc. on the one hand (s.v. gab (D)) and camparaid on the other (see fn 2, above).