ONlwSG

cus m. [kʰus̪], [kʰu̟s̪] 

Cf. [kʿüs] (Borgstrøm 1940, 33: Lewis); /kus/ (Oftedal 1956, 110: Lewis); [kûs] (LASID IV, 195, Item 90: (e) Lewis); [kʰus] (Wentworth 2003, s.v. too (many/much): Wester Ross); /kʰus/ (Dorian 1978, 102: East Sutherland); /kus/ (Watson 2022, 167: Easter Ross). Besides the foregoing, note the lengthening in [ku.s] (LASID IV, 195, Item 90: (f) Wester Ross), [kuːs] (ibid.: (g) Sutherland) and [kuːs] (Dieckhoff 1932: Glengarry).

Corpas na Gàidhlig^˄ has eight entries for cùs, with lengthmark, but most, if not all, can be dismissed as errors or stand-ins for cus, without lengthmark: (1) Text 83: in a poem by Ailean Dall (Glencoe, c. 1750–1828) in Mackenzie’s (1841) Sàr-Obair nam Bard Gaelach, p. 310 b.19, where cùs rhymes with dhùbhladh, but perhaps only out of poetic expediency, cf. Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir’s (Glen Orchy, 1724–1812) cus, without lengthmark (in MacLeod 1978, 172.2406); (2) Text 100: in a reprint of (1) in Am Filidh Gaidhealach 1873, p. 56; (3) Text 125: in a poem by Màiri Mhòr nan Òran (Skye, 1821–1898) in Nic-a-Phearsoin’s (1891) Dàin agus Orain Ghàidhlig, p. 310.5, although the word has no lengthmark on p. 42.10 (neither instance is given in Meek’s 1998 edition); (4) Text 256: in Wentworth’s (1996) Faclan is Abairtean à Ros an Iar, s.v. askew, so also under squint, but this is a typesetting error for cus, without lengthmark, cf. the respective transcriptions in both 1996 and 2003 editions; (5) Text 400048: in an article by Ruairidh MacGilleathain (Bragar, Lewis) in Gairm 48 (1964), 316: a’ faireachdainn rudeigin tioram le cùs còmhraidh, although this is a misreading: p. 316 line 9 of the journal in fact gives a’ faireachdainn rudeigin tioram le cus còmhraidh, which aligns with transcriptions in dialectal studies of both west and east Lewis Gaelic (Borgstrøm 1940, 33; Oftedal 1956, 110, 215); (6–8) Texts 600101, 600116, 600168: in BBC news articles (Naidheachdan a’ BhBC 15/11/2017, 27/2/2019 and 8/6/2023, respectively), although they are likely to be typesetting errors: cus, without lengthmark, is otherwise used passim in BBC news articles (Corpas na Gàidhlig, s.v. cus (Texts 600-)).

^,  

Indeclinable, although Dwelly (1911) gives genitive cuis (so also AFB^˄).

is a noun of quantity and translated by MacLennan (≈1925) as ‘too much, enough, superfluity, many, great quantity’. He gives three examples of usage: (1) nominally, as direct object in (an d’ fhuair thu iasg?) cha d’ fhuair cus ‘(did you get fish?) not too much (i.e. not much)’; (2) nominally, in the copula construction tha sin cus ‘that is too much’; 

SG cus, along with numerals and several other nouns of quantity, may occur in copula constructions with the verb BI (Cox 2017, 192 §181(iii), 274 §296(v)); otherwise copula constructions are the reserve of the verb IS (ibid., 278–90).

and (3) adverbially, qualifying the adjectival nas fheàrr in chan eil i cus nas fheàrr ‘she is not too much better (i.e. it is doubtful whether she is any better)’. 

For example, cf. Mac-Dhonuill 1751, 125: agus cus do dhroch thuar orra [sic] [lit. ‘and too much of a bad colour on them’]; Shaw 1780: ‘enough’; MacFarlane 1815: ‘enough, a quantity’; Armstrong 1825: ‘a quantity, sufficiency, enough’ (citing Shaw); HSS 1828: ‘enough (citing Lhyud 1707); superfluity, too much; many’; M^cAlpine 1832: ‘enough, superfluity, many’ (noting North Highland usage); MacEachen 1842: ‘a great quanti[t]y, much’; Dwelly 1911: (as an adjective) ‘many’, (as a noun) ‘enough, sufficiency; superfluity, too much; used as a term of incredulity, equivalent to “no fear”; quantity’; and Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: ‘too much, very much; surfeit’, Cape Breton. Armstrong cites Ir. cus ‘idem’, but this is based on O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary’s cus ‘a quantity, enough’, a ghost word adopted from Scottish Gaelic (cf. MacFarlane 1815, above). For SG cus, Dwelly also gives the senses ‘subsidy, tax, tribute’, but these go back via HSS 1828 (‘subsidy tribute’, citing Lhuyd), Armstrong (‘tax, subsidy’, noting the same in Irish) and Shaw (‘subsidy, tribute’) to Lhuyd’s (1707) cús ‘subsidy or tribute’, who cites Plunkett (1662). However, Lhuyd’s cús is probably a miscopying of Plunkett’s cíos (fo. 66r, s.v. census (although the lengthmark lies above the o)) or similar, cf. ?cios tíre (fo. 393r, s.v. tributum); cf. O’Clery 1643: cíos .i. peacadh ‘sin’, O’Begly 1732, s.v. revenue: cíos, and O’Brien 1768: cios [sic] ‘tribute, rent, revenue’. Ir. cíos (Ó Dónaill 1977) goes back to OG cís ‘tax, tribute, cess, rent’ < Lat. census (eDIL^˄; Thurneysen 1975, 172); note that O’Reilly (1817) gives ‘cus “rent”, see ciós [sic]’. (Scottish Gaelic has both cìs and cìos.)

Craig (≈1946, 61) derives SG cus from ON kös [leg. kǫs f.] ‘heap, pile’, as does John Lorne Campbell (in McDonald 1972). 

Craig suggests that ON kǫs may be connected with Slavonic kus ‘a lump’ (cf. Russian кус (kus) ‘bite, morsel, mouthful’ (OpenRussian.org)) and even Finnish kosa (leg. kasa ‘mass, mound, heap, pile, stack’ (suomienglantisanakirja.fi)).

^,

Armstrong (1825) suggests that SG cus may be a corruption of SG cuimheas (i.e. cuibheas) ‘moderation, sufficiency’, but for the latter cf. EG coḃés, cuḃés, Early Modern Irish coibhéis ‘an equal amount, an equivalent’ (< EG coṁ- + (len.) *phéis ‘weight’ < Lat. pensum (O’Rahilly 1942c, 183–84)).

ON kǫs would be expected to yield SG *cos *[kʰɔs̪], but does yield Scots coose, koos /kus/ ‘a heap or pile (of refuse)’ (CSD2; cf. Jakobsen 1928, s.v. kus: [kus], [kos]; see also SND^˄, s.v. kes), which in turn would yield SG cus [kʰus̪] or [kʰu̟s̪], according to dialect. Further, the half-long vowel and long vowel recorded in some mainland Gaelic dialects (fn 1, above) may indicate the presence of a phonetically longer, albeit phonemically short, variety of /u/ (McClure 1977) in the Scots dialect(s) concerned.