v1.0
Published 01/10/24
dìrid ‘lapwing, Vanellus vanellus’ is compared by Henderson (1910, 124: dīrid ‘puffin, also stormy petrel’) with Scots (Shetland) dirridu ‘stormy petrel’, a compound, according to Jakobsen (1928: [dərr··idū·]), whose first element may possibly be ‘classed with’ Norw. dirl nt., dirle m. ‘a slender figure, nimble person’ and derla f. ‘wagtail etc.’, and whose second element is ‘probably from’ ON dúfa f. ‘dove’. While Ó Muirithe (2010) follows Henderson, McDonald (2009, 349; 2015, 123) considers the derivation uncertain and Lockwood (1976, 273, 278) notes that ‘more data is required before an etymology can be more than conjectural.’ Among other phonological considerations, the rl cluster of the Old Norse compound would not be expected to reduce to r in Gaelic, while the short vowel of the primarily stressed initial syllable of the Scots reflex would not be expected to yield the long vowel of Henderson’s dīrid.
While Henderson gives the senses ‘puffin; stormy petrel’, HSS (1828: dìrid m.) and Forbes (1905, 26, 298: dirid
Forbes disregards lengthmarks.
) give ‘lapwing’ and Dwelly (1911: dìrid f.) ‘lapwing; puffin
From the first edition of his dictionary, ≈Dwelly’s entry reads ‘dìrid f. “lapwing”, see adharcan-luachrach 2. (MMcD) “puffin”—W. Suth’d.’ The expansion of MMcD, however, is not given until the second, 1918 edition: ‘Malcolm MacDonald, Stornoway’; it is understood here that Malcolm MacDonald of Stornoway was familiar with the use of dìrid to mean ‘puffin’ in West Sutherland, rather than that the sense ‘puffin’ was in use in Stornoway (pace McDonald 2009, 349).
’. For ‘lapwing’, Armstrong (1825, s.vv. pewet, puet and tir-wit) gives SG dilit (leg. dilid), which is subsequently cited in Dwelly, An Stòr-Dàta 1993 and Garvie 1999.
Dwelly cites dìtig as a Lewis form of dìrid, although this is probably a variant of SG dìdeag (An Stòr-Dàta 1993: ‘lapwing’; AFB˄: ‘linnet’, Lewis), dìdig (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘hedge sparrow’, Lewis; An Stòr-Dàta 1993: ‘linnet; meadow pipit’; Cunningham 1990, 150: didig, for dìdig, ‘meadow pi[pi]t’, 189: dìdig ‘linnet’; Garvie 1999: didig ‘idem’) and dìodaig (Forbes 26, 302: diodaig ‘idem’) arising out of confusion with dìrid. SG dìdeag is also found in the sense ‘starling’ (An Stòr-Dàta 1993), but this would seem to be the result of confusion with SG druid etc. EG truit, truid, druid ‘starling’ (eDIL˄) yields a number of forms in Scottish Gaelic:
A. truid, truideag, truidean
(i) truid (MacDomhnuill 1741, 74; Shaw 1780: ‘starling’, and s.v. thrush: truid; McAlpine 1832; Forbes 1905, 335; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: truit (sic), Harris);
(ii) truideag (McAlpine; Forbes 335; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄) and truideog (Shaw 1780: ‘starling’, and s.v. thrush: truideog), with the suffix -ag;
(iii) truidean (Forbes 335), with the suffix -an;
(iv) trodan (ibid.), with the suffix -an upon a non-palatal base, cf. SG olc ‘evil’, gen. uilc.
B. druid, druideag, druidean
(i) druid (Shaw 1780: ‘thrush’; Armstrong 1825: ‘thrush’; HSS 1828; MacLeod and Dewar 1839: ‘starling; thrush’; Fergusson 1886, 41; Forbes 26, 335);
(ii) druid-dhubh (Fergusson 34: ‘ring ousel’, 41: ‘starling’; Forbes 26: ‘ring ousel’, 335: ‘starling’; Wentworth 2003, s.v. starling: [d̥rüt’ ˈɣuʰ], Wester Ross; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Assynt: [d̪ɾıdʹɣu̟], Lewis and Raasay), with the adjective dubh ‘black’; druid-dubh (Mackenzie 1847, s.v. starling), with suppression of the lenition of the adjective due to the juxtaposition of homorganic consonants (Cox 2017, 62–63; Calder 1972, 27–28); and druid-bhreac (Fergusson 41; Forbes 26, 335), with the adjective breac ‘speckled’;
(iii) druideach-dubh (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: North Sutherland and Assynt: [d̪ɾidʹɑxd̪u̟]), with the suffix -ach;
(iv) druideag (Shaw: druidag ‘thrush’; Armstrong: ‘young thrush’; HSS: ‘little starling’; Forbes 26, 335; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Argyllshire and Harris), with the suffix -ag;
(v) druidean (Fergusson 41; Forbes 26, 335), with the suffix -an.
For West Sutherland, Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄ also gives dirid-dubh [dʹiɾıdʹd̪u̜] ‘starling’ (though unmarked, with primary stress on the final element), although dirid here is likely to be a variant of druid (B 2), with dr becoming syllabic via an interpolated central glide [ə]; for comparable glides in the dialect, cf. SG druim (Assynt) [dərəim] ‘back; ridge’ (LASID IV, 277, Item 67) and drochaid (Wester Ross and occasionally West and North Sutherland) dər- ‘bridge’ (SGDS Item 350, Points 124, 126–27, 130, 136).
Note the possibility of the Irish personal name Ó Direáin (Ó Dearáin) being from EG dreän ‘wren’ (SG dreathan) as suggested by Brian Ó Cuív in 1987 (pers. comm. Professors Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh and Seòsamh Watson); cf. SG dreòlan ‘wren’, q.v.
There may also have been influence from either dìrid – Henderson notes that his dīrid is from West Sutherland – and/or dìdeag.
SG dìdeag and the normalised dative forms dìdig, dìodaig probably go back to SG dìd f. ‘peep, peek’ and its diminutive form dìdeag; SG druid appears to yield dirid in West Sutherland, a phonetic development perhaps encouraged by association with dìrid and/or dìdeag; dìrid itself may in origin be onomatopoeic, cf. Eng. tirwhit ‘lapwing’,
Also terwhite, tirwit. Cf. Skinner 1671: tirwhit, idem quod pewit ..., sic dicta per onomatopœiam à sono quem edit (‘... the same as pewit, so called via onomatopoeia from the sound it produces’); a Scots form according to OED˄ (s.v. tewhit), perhaps a corruption of Scots teuchit (Jamieson 1808, s.v.).
although the influence of dìdeag and/or a folk etymology connecting the word with SG dìr ‘to climb’ is possible; so too SG dilid, for which we should perhaps read dìlid, although it may derive from dìrid, through phonemic interchange of r and l.