ONlwSG

ciosan m. [ˈkʲʰis̪an], also cisean [ˈkʲʰiʃan], gen. -ain -[æɲ], -[ɛɲ], ‘a type of basket, woven from straw, coarse grass, willow, heather etc.’ according to Henderson (1910, 114: cìsean, cìosan [sic]) ‘may be founded on some Norse form’, comparing Scots (Shetland) kesshie ‘woven basket’, which Jakobsen (1897, 31: kesshie; 1928, s.v. kessi) equates with Nn. kjessa, from ON kass m. or kassi m. ‘basket’. MacBain (1911) lists SG (Islay) cìsean [sic], which he derives from SG cèis ‘case, hamper’, which he in turn derives from Eng. case; he (1896; 1911) also lists SG ciosan, along with Ir. cis, cisean and EG ceiss (ces) ‘basket’, which he suggests are possibly allied to, if not borrowed from, Lat. cista ‘chest, box’, although in his 1911 edition he also compares Scots cassie (a variant of Jakobsen’s kesshie, kessi). In a non-standard orthography, Christiansen (1938, 5, 20–21) cites SG kissan ‘a straw basket for grain’, comparing Scots (Shetland) kessi and (Orkney and Caithness) caisie (cf. Marwick 1929, s.v. kaisie, kazy), with which he also compares Nn. kjesse (leg. kjessa) and ON kass, kassi.

De Vries (1962) follows Christiansen in deriving SG kissan from ON kass, kassi. Christiansen himself refers to Marstrander’s (1915a, 62, 94) derivation of EG ceis, cess (ces) from ON kesja f., but these are different words meaning ‘spear’ and ‘halberd’, respectively.

Nn. kjessa is a by-form of Nn. kass, itself from ON kass, kassi (Torp 1992, s.vv. kass, kjessa). ON kass would formally be expected to yield SG *cas *[kʰas̪], while kassa acc. would formally be expected to yield SG *casa *[ˈkʰas̪ə], and on this basis SG ciosan etc. is unlikely to derive from ON kass or kassi.

McDonald (2009, 370) considers a derivation from Old Norse unlikely, except possibly Christiansen’s form kissan, which according to McDonald ‘indicates a non-palatal initial’. However, kissan is merely a scotticised orthographic form of SG ciosan.

Ir. cis (ceis), ciseán (ceiseán), ciseog (ceiseog)
These forms generally have the senses ‘(wicker) basket or container; hurdle’. Lhuyd (1707) lists ceis ‘basket, pannier’, ceisean ‘small hamper or pannier’, and the diminutives ceiseóg ‘diminutive of ceis’, ceisin ‘the same as ceiseóg’ and ciséan ‘little chest or coffer’; O’Brien (1768) ceis ‘basket, pannier’, and the diminutives ceiseàn ‘small hamper’, ceiséan ‘small basket; hurdle’ and ciseán ‘chest, coffer’; O’Reilly (1817) ceis ‘basket, hamper’, and the diminutives ceisean, ceisin ‘small basket; hurdle’. The current Irish forms listed by Ó Dónaill (1977) are cis (ceis) ‘wicker container; basket, crate; plaited or crossed twigs as support for causeway’, ciseán ‘(wicker) basket’ and ciseog (ceiseog) ‘shallow basket’.

Ir. ciseán is now the normal word for ‘shopping basket’ (pers. comm. Professor Seòsamh Watson).

The senses ‘basket, hamper, pannier’ go back to EG ces ‘idem’, a substantival use of the verbal adjective cisse ‘woven, braided’, identified with Lat. cis(s)ium ‘sorte de cabriolet en forme de panier’, a loan from Gaul. cission (Vendryes 1996; 

Vendryes describes Stokes’s (1888b, 490 fn 6: ciss) derivation from Lat. cista ‘chest’ as obsolete. eDIL lists Marstrander’s (1915a, 63, 94: ceis, cess) etymology of EG ces ‘basket’ from ON kesja, but Marstrander’s ces is a different word, see fn 1, above.

Delamarre 2003, s.v. cission). The senses ‘chest, coffer’, however, seem to be the result of conflation with Ir. ciste ‘chest, coffer’ and cisteog ‘little chest, casket’ (Ó Dónaill 1977), which go back to EG ciste, a loan either from OEng. ciste (< Lat. cista) or directly from Lat. cista (Vendryes 1996).

SG cios, ciosan etc.
Scottish Gaelic forms include those with non-palatal with -[s̪]- (A) and those with palatal -[ʃ]- (B–C):

A. SG cios, ciosan
A 1. SG cios [ˈkʲʰis̪]
In Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: ‘a large(r) basket’, Strathglass; and AFB^˄: cios /kʲis/ ‘(large) woven/wicker basket or panel’.

A 2. SG ciosan [ˈkʲʰis̪an]
(i) ciosan (MacDomhnuill 1741, 89; Mac Farlan 1795; HSS 1828, citing MacDomhnuill 1741, 95; MacEachen 1842; MacBain 1896, 1911; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: South Uist, [cısɑṉ] and [cwsɑṉ], 

Where [w] presumably = [ɯ].

Lewis; AFB^˄ ciosan /kʲisan/);
(ii) cisan (MacDomhnuill 1741, 95), for ciosan, see the same source under (i);
(iii) kissan (Christiansen 1938, 5, 20–21), for ciosan (i);
(iv) ceasan (Dwelly 1911: see ciosan), a variant of, or for, ciosan;
(v) ciosain (Shaw 1780: cisain; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Arran), with a palatalised nasal, a variant of ciosan (i);
(vi) cìosan (MacLeod & Dewar 1831; Henderson 1910, 114), in error for ciosan (i).

A 3. SG ciosan in open compounds, i.e. followed by a noun, used adjectivally, in the genitive or in genitive position:
(i) with SG aran ‘bread’ (MacDomhnuill 1741, 87: cisan-arain; HSS 1828: ciosan-arain, citing MacDomhnuill 1741, 87);
(ii) with SG min ‘flour’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: ciosan-mine ‘a small basket for meal’, Strathglass);
(iii) ?with SG bun-feòir ‘hay-stubble’ (Dwelly 1911: ciosan-bafair [?a reduced, first-syllable stressed form] ‘vessel made of sea-bent’, s.v. brà 15: cisean-bafair ‘idem’; 

Which gives the alternative cìsean-mùrain [leg. cisean-murain, with SG muran ‘marram (grass)’].

Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: ciosan bu fire [?a folk-etymologically driven form] ‘an outsize ciosan’, Lewis, with the accompanying note: faic cisean bafaire [sic] san fhaclair [‘see the dictionary’s cisean bafaire’]).

B. SG ceis, ceisin, ceiseach
B 1. SG ceis [kʲʰeʃ]
(i) ceis (Shaw 1780: ‘basket, hamper’; Mac Farlan 1795: ‘idem’; MacFarlane 1815: ‘creel, basket’; Dieckhoff 1932: [kˈjéS] ‘a case (for keeping things in); a basket for peat used in Kintail’);
(ii) céis (HSS 1828: ‘case, keeping place, basket’, ascribed to Lhuyd 1707 and known from common speech), in error for ceis.

It appears that HSS has conflated SG céis (now spelt cèis) ‘case, receptacle’ (see below) with SG ceis ‘basket etc.’, cf. Lhuyd’s ceis ‘basket, pannier’. Dwelly (1911) lists HSS’s céis with the senses ‘creel, basket, hamper’, although in AFB^˄ the spelling is altered to ceis.

B 2. SG ceis in an open compound, i.e. followed by a noun, used adjectivally, in the genitive or in genitive position:
With SG mòine ‘peat’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: ceis mhòna, ceis-mhòine ‘a large basket for carrying peats on the back’, Lochaber).

B 3. SG ceisin
In Shaw 1780: ‘small basket, hurdle’, for *[ˈkʲʰeʃiɲ] or possibly for *ceisein *[ˈkʲʰeʃɛɲ].

B 4. SG ceiseach [ˈkʲʰeʃəx]
In CG VI, 40: ‘[a] frail farm bridge across a drain or ditch for sheep and cattle, from ceis “wattle”, the bridge being constructed of some form of wattle work.’

C. SG cis, cisean, ciseag
C 1. SG cis [kʲʰiʃ]
In AFB^˄: /kʲiʃ/ ‘(large) woven/wicker basket or panel’, Spean Bridge, although the source reads ceis.

The Calum Maclean Collection: File uk007-04-21 ‘Na Boireannaich Uibhisteach agas an Gille’ (p. 681) (pers. comm. AFB’s editor Michael Bauer).

C 2. SG cisean [kʲʰiʃan]
(i) cisean (HSS 1828: ‘little chest or coffer’, citing Lhuyd 1707, and ‘hamper’, citing MacDomhnuilll 1741, 89; MacLeod & Dewar 1831: ‘little chest, coffer’; M^cAlpine 1832: [kēsh²´-an’] ‘hamper’, Islay; Dwelly 1911: ‘hamper’, Islay, ‘little chest, coffer’; MacLennan 1925: ‘hamper’, see ciosan; AFB^˄: /kʲiʃan/ ‘small woven basket’);
(ii) cìsean (Henderson 1910, 114; MacBain 1911: Islay), with a lengthmark, perhaps from interpreting M^cAlpine’s [kēsh²´-an’] as having a long stressed vowel (see (i)).

C 3. SG ciseag [kʲʰiʃaɡ̊]
In AFB^˄: /kʲiʃag/ ‘small woven basket (round and about 1ft high) or creel, kishie’.

AFB’s editor Michael Bauer (pers. comm.) is unable to confirm the source, but is under the impression that the form was noted in a report on the survival of Gaelic words in the English of the fishing community of East Sutherland.

SG ceis, cis and the diminutive forms ceisin (?or ceisein), cisean, ciseag parallel the development of EG ces to Ir. ceis, cis and the diminutive forms ceiseán, ciseán, ceiseog, ciseog, although borrowing or influence from Scots cannot be entirely ruled out.

Cf. Scots [′keʃɪ̢,] [′kɛʃɪ̢] (SND^˄, s.v. cassie) and [′kɪʃi] (ibid., s.v. kishie).

SG cios and the diminutive form ciosan, on the other hand, seem to be based on or at least to have been influenced by Scots, cf. (Shetland) [kesi], [kɛsi] (Jakobsen 1928, s.v. kessi; see also SND^˄, s.v. cassie).

SG cèis [kʲʰeːʃ]
MacBain’s (1911) suggestion that SG cèis ‘case, receptacle’ is from Eng. case seems likely to be correct: the 16th-century open [ɛː] of Eng. case became a close [eː] in the 17th century, before becoming a diphthong [ei] at the beginning of the 18th century (Brook 1975, 25); Scots case [kes] has a short vowel.

Ir. cás ‘idem’, on the other hand, unless it is an analogical form, appears to go back to MEng. case with long [aː].

Dwelly (1911) lists SG ceis-chrainn ‘polypody, Polypodium vulgare’, without lengthmark; this goes back to HSS (1828), where it is ascribed to O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary, but O’Reilly’s ceischrainn seems likely to be an inaccurate adaptation of Lhuyd’s (1700, 122 V.151) SG (Argyllshire) kêsh chran, i.e. cèis-chrann.

Garvie (1999, 9.28) cites Lhuyd (ibid.) as giving cèis chrainn rather than cèis chrann. An Stòr-Dàta’s (1993) source for ceis-chrainn is Garvie (ibid.), but the latter gives cèis chrainn. Carmichael (CG VI, 40) gives ceus-chrann and ceus-chrannd(a); McDonald (1972, South Uist) lists the forms céis and céis-chrannda ‘[f]rom Carmichael’s lists’. M^cAlpine (1832) gives ceis-chrann [sic] [kēsh´-chrann] (leg. [kāsh´-chrann]), with a long vowel, for Islay.