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Published 01/10/24
dragh vb [d̪̥ɾəɣ],
Cf. /drɤɣ/ (AFB˄).
‘to drag, pull, tug’, vn draghadh m. [d̪̥ɾə-əɣ]
Cf. SG draghair [dröerˈ] (Dieckhoff 1932: ‘puller, one who drags’), draghaire [dru-iru] (MacLennan 1925: ‘dray’). Also draghal (AFB˄ /drɤ.əL/).
‘dragging etc.’,
For SG draghadh in the sense ‘parting, separating’ (e.g. Dwelly 1911 and AFB˄), s.v. drabh.
is derived from ON draga ‘to pull, draw’ (with medial [ɣ]) (Craigie 1894, 164, so de Vries 1962, s.v. 2draga; Mackay 1897, 92;
Citing Ice. draga. Mackay derives the noun SG dragh ‘trouble, vexation, annoyance’ from the same source, but this word appears to be native, cf. the compound OG (gen.) morḋraiġe ‘great ruggedness’ (eDIL˄; MacBain 1911).
and McDonald 2009, 349
McDonald also cites the strong verb ON drega, but this would formally yield SG *dreagh(a) *[d̪̥ɾɛɣ(ə)] or similar.
). The phonetic development is regular.
The alternative pronunciation [d̪̥ɾəː] (cf. [drū] (MacLennan 1925, s.v. dragh ‘to draw, pull, drag’) and /drəː/ (Oftedal 1956, 86: draoth ‘to stretch’)) is likely to have a different source: although the final fricative of SG lagh ‘law’ (< ON lǫg acc., q.v.) is lost in some dialects, it is rarely compensated for by lengthening of the preceding vowel (see SGDS Item 545), and, as Oftedal points out, ON draga would not normally yield SG [d̪̥ɾəː]. MacLennan
As do MacBain (1911) and Dwelly (1911), although they do not provide pronunciations.
derives the form from Eng. drag, but without accounting for the development of g > gh, and it seems more likely that SG [d̪̥ɾəː] is simply a reflex of Scots draw [drɑː], [drɔː] (cf. Cox 2022, 451–52 + fn 21). For the sense ‘to stretch’, cf. MScots draw ‘to extend or stretch out’ (DOST˄, sense 13 b) and Eng. draw ‘†to stretch, spread’ (OED˄, sense 40).
The word appears not to occur in Irish. O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary lists draghadh ‘pulling, dragging’, but this has probably been adopted from Shaw’s (1780) Scottish Gaelic dictionary. MacBain (1911) compares SG dragh with Ir. dragáil (cf. Pota Focal˄, s.v. tarraing [‘pulling’]), but dragáil is likely to be a relatively recent borrowing from Eng. drag + the verbal noun suffix -áil.
Derivatives: In addition to the verbal noun SG draghadh and the agent noun SG draghair, draghaire m., note the nominal use of dragh ([d̪̥ɾəɣ]) in the sense ‘rope, fishing line’, also in the extended sense ‘fishing rod’: Dwelly 1911: ‘the rope of straw or hay, which keeps the ends of the heather rope loops in their places on a thatched roof; line attached to a fishing rod, fishing (rod) tackle’; LASID IV, 257, Item 1116: [ḍröḫ], pl. [ḍröɣ̮ən] ‘fishing line (of rod)’, Lewis; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: [dɾɤɣ] ‘rope from horse’s harness to greallag’, North Uist, [d̪ɾɤi]: ‘the base rope going round the thatch just above the wall and to which the anchoring stones are suspended’, Skye, [d̪ɾɤɣ] ‘rope round the thatch about two feet above the top of the wall – the weights were hung on this rope, and also the rope going over the top was looped round this anchor rope’, Harris, [d̪ɾɤɣ] ‘also used for line on a fishing rod’,
A note added by Richard Cox that ‘this is [ˈd̪ɔrɔɣ] in fact’ is incorrect: dorgh, q.v., is a different word.
Lewis; AFB˄: /drɤɣ/ ‘fishing line; loop rope (keeps ends of rope loops in place on a thatched roof)’. Cf. Scots (Shetland) draw vb (presumably earlier drag) in the sense ‘to catch fish with a hand line’ < ON draga fisk ‘idem’ (Jakobsen 1928, s.v. draw and 1drag).
There may have been conflation between SG dragh in the sense ‘fishing line’ and dorgh ‘hand line’, resulting in (Islay and Argyll) drogh, drogha, s.v. dorgh.