v1.0
Published 01/10/24
cnap m. [kʰɾãʰp] (cf. Oftedal 1956, 104: /krɑ̃p/; 1972, 120: [kʿrahp]), gen. cnaip [kʰɾɛ̃ʰp], ‘button, stud, knob, boss; lump, potato, small hill; blow, thud; gust’,
Cf. Dwelly 1911; AFB˄.
EG cnapp (or cnap, cnaip(e) with voiceless -p (eDIL˄)); extended senses include ‘heavy cloud formation; shoal of herring; shinty ball’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄). EG cnapp is derived from ON knappr m. ‘knob, button, stud’,
Zimmer 1888, 276–77; Stokes 1892, 425; Craigie 1894, 161; MacBain 1896, 91; Meyer 1906, 397; Bugge 1912, 292, 298; Meyer 1912–19 §54; Marstrander 1915a, 61, 97; de Vries 1962; eDIL˄.
also ‘hill, small protruding hill or peninsula’ (Rygh 1898, 61), similarly SG cnap,
Craigie 1894, 161; MacBain 1894a, 624–25; MacBain 1896; Henderson 1910, 138, 173; Stewart 2004, 409; McDonald 2009; Ó Muirithe 2010.
but the Old Norse etymon must have been knapp acc.
Oftedal 1972, 120; Cox 1991, 492; 1992, 138; and possibly implied by Schulze-Thulin 1996, 106: knapp(r).
The development of the final Old Norse geminate -pp to SG preaspirated [ʰp] /p/ is regular. For the development of initial ON kn-, cf. EG cnocc ‘hill’ > SG cnoc [kʰɾõʰk], also with nasalised vowel. An alternative derivation from OEng. cnæpp ‘top, summit (of a hill)’ is suggested by Borkent (2014, 64–65) and Sandberg-McGowan (1966, 226–27), but this seems phonetically and semantically less suitable. EG cnapp survives also in Irish cnap, cnaipe
MacBain 1896, 91; Bergin 1943, 237; Sommerfelt 1949, 234; Greene 1976, 79; 1978, 121; Sandberg-McGowan ibid.; Mac Mathúna 2001, 76.
and in Manx.
Manx reflexes survive in what are or were originally Manx creations in the place nomenclature of Man, e.g. Crammag (PNIM III, 351), The Crappans (ibid., 351–52) and The Knappans (ibid., 417); for further discussion of the historical phonology of the Manx forms, see Cox 2008a, 112. See also Marstrander 1932, 268.
Derivatives: cneap (Arran) [krɛ̃p], [kræ᷉p] (Holmer 1957, 6), (Gigha) [kʿrɛhp] (Holmer 1938, 14), (Islay) [kɾexp], len. gen. (Mull) [xɾe̜ip] (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄), a southern variant of cnap; cnapan m. ‘small lump; block; knob (penis)’ (Dwelly 1911; Newton 2014, 36; AFB˄) with the diminutive suffix -an; cnapag f. ‘small lump; ball’ with the diminutive suffix -ag; cnapach m. ‘boy’ with the nominal suffix -ach;
Although MacBain (1894a, 624) suggests it is from cnap ‘with a possible remembrance of’ ON knapi m. ‘servant, boy’, but knapi would yield SG *[kʰɾãb̥]. Whether cnapach in the sense ‘boy’ is based on cnap in the sense ‘lump’ or ‘penis’ is unclear.
cnapach adj. ‘lumpy’ with the adjectival suffix -ach; and cnapanach m./adj. based on cnapan m., with similar senses to cnapach m./adj.
EG cnapġal f. may have the sense ‘close fight’ or ‘close fighting’ (Meyer 1906, 397; eDIL˄). EG cnaplong f. (Thurneysen 1891, 73 §31) has been taken to consist of the Norse loan-word EG cnap + EG long f. ‘ship’ and been translated as ‘studded ship’ (Meyer 1906, 397; 1912–19 §54; Bugge 1912, 292; Marstrander 1915a, 133; 1916, 369), but it has more recently been taken to be for EG cnáplong ‘hemp-laden ship’ with EG cnáip (McLaughlin 2008, 134–35; eDIL˄).