v1.0
Published 01/10/24
duatharachd f. [ˈd̪̥uəhəɾəxk], -[axk], -[ɔxk], gen. idem, is defined as ‘murkiness, obscurity; mystery’ by MacLennan (1925), who compares ON [D]umbr
ON dumbr here is a masculine variant of ON dumba f. ‘mist’, distinct from the adjective ON dumbr ‘dumb, mute’.
‘the [M]isty’, the name of a giant in folklore (NO; Cleasby 1874, s.v. dumba), from which Stewart (2004, 409) infers, without further explanation, that duatharachd is derived from ON dumbr; McDonald (2009, 350) considers the derivation unlikely.
McDonald notes that under duathar m. and the adjective duatharach Dwelly (1911) refers the reader to dubhar m. ‘shade, darkness; eclipse; gloom’ and the adjective dubharach ‘shady, shading, shadowy, opaque, dusky, dark, cloudy, gloomy’, respectively; Dwelly does not list duatharachd but defines dubharachd f. as ‘shade, darkness; shady or dusky place; opacity; eclipse of the sun or moon; duskiness; cloudiness’. (MacLennan provides no etymology for dubhar etc.)
SG dubhar m. [ˈd̪̥u̟-əɾ], [ˈd̪̥u-əɾ],
Cf. [doo-ar] (MacLennan 1925), /du.ər/ (AFB˄).
also [ˈd̪̥uhəɾ]
Cf. [d̥uhər] (Wentworth 2003, s.v. darkening, shade, shadow). For hiatus > /h/, see Watson 1996, 376.
and [ˈd̪̥uvəɾ],
Cf. [dŭv’´-ur] (McAlpine 1832).
along with the derivative forms dubharach and dubharachd, go back to EG doḃur ‘dark, unclean; obscure; (substantively) darkness; gloom, depression; obscurity’ (< *dhubhro-; hence Ir. dobhar ‘dark, dull, obscure’), itself a derivative of EG duḃ ‘black’ (< *dhubhu-) (Vendryes 1996, s.v. 1dobur); cf. HSS (1828), which takes SG dubhar to be a derivative of SG dubh.
In his Archæologica Britannica (1707), Lhuyd lists Ir. dobhar, but earlier (1700, 101, Item I.17) records SG (Inverness-shire) dŵr na gallaih ‘an eclipse [of the moon]’, i.e. dubhar na gealaich, although his editors Campbell and Thomson (p. 256) take dŵr to be for SG dùbhradh m., the derivative verbal noun. For SG dubhar, Mac Farlan (1795) and Dwelly (1911) also cite the definition ‘eclipse’; otherwise, senses given are ‘darkness’ (Shaw 1780; Mac Farlan 1795, under a separate entry), ‘darkness, shade’ (MacFarlane 1815; Armstrong 1825; HSS 1828; McAlpine 1832; MacLeod and Dewar 1839; MacEachen 1842; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; AFB˄; McDonald 1972, s.v. duathar: ‘shade’; Wentworth 2003, s.vv. darkening, shade, shadow), ‘dusk’ (Armstrong 1825) and ‘gloom’ (Armstrong 1825; Dwelly 1911; AFB˄).
SG duathar occurs as a word in its own right, however, e.g. in Iain Lom’s (c. 1625–post 1707, from Lochaber) songs: dubhar : bhruthach (os cionn dubhar nam bad ‘above the shadows of the thickets’, in MacKenzie 1964, 192, line 2470), but duathar : bhuaireadh (ann an duathar mo chlèibh ‘in the recesses of my breast’, in ibid., 88, line 1079), and a semantic differentiation between duathar ‘obscurity’ and dubhar ‘shade’ is maintained in Uist Gaelic (McDonald 1972) – the same differentiation made between duatharachd ‘murkiness, obscurity; mystery’ and dubharachd ‘the darkening; the dusk; a shady or dusky place; opacity, an eclipse of the sun or moon’ in MacLennan (1925).
For the semantic differentiation or lexical split, cf. Dillon 1953.
On the other hand, confusion between the two words is suggested by Dieckhoff’s (1932) listing of dubhar with a pronunciation [duɐhar],
Cf. (Glengarry) dubharach [duɐhɐrɐK] ‘shady, dusky’, but dubhach [duhuK] ‘sad’ and dubhradh [sic] [duhurəG] ‘shade’ (Dieckhoff ibid.).
and implied by Dwelly’s cross-referencing of duathar to dubhar. The cause of this partial redundancy may be partly due to HSS’s (1828) mistaken cross-reference of duathar to duthar, an adjective given as meaning ‘grim, stern, rough’
So also MacLeod & Dewar 1831, Dwelly 1911 and AFB˄.
and ascribed to Lhuyd.
In fact, duthar appears in the sense ‘grim, stern, unpleasant, rough’ in O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary.
MacLeod and Dewar (1839) perseverate the error by listing duathar as ‘dusk’, along with a cross-reference to duthar ‘grim, stern, rough’.
SG duthar may in fact be from Scots dour [duːr] (SND˄: ‘hard, stern, severe, relentless etc.’; DOST˄: ‘determined, resolute, stern, hardy etc.’); cf. SG dugharra, dutharra ‘surly, dour’ (s.v. durga), probably also from Scots dour. For the disyllabification, cf. Oftedal 1956, 134–35, and Watson 1999, 350–51. For hiatus > th [h], see Watson 1996, 376. Ir. duthar similarly, if not connected with EG dúr ‘hard, rigid, solid; hard, difficult; hard to bear etc.’ (< Lat. dūrus) (eDIL˄).
However, MacDomhnuill’s (1741, 134) entry ‘duatharach, dubhtharach “shady” ’ suggests that confusion between duathar and dubhar may be more long-standing.
If not of a different etymology, SG duathar may go back to EG dúaḃair ‘dark, gloomy’, ?a by-form of EG doḃur (eDIL˄; Vendryes 1996). For the development dubhar > duathar, cf. fumhair (fomhair) > fuamhair ‘giant’ etc. (Ó Maolalaigh 2013, 202–06), although note possible influence from EG dúaḋ, earlier dóḋ, ‘labour, trouble, difficulty, painful toil’ (eDIL˄)
SG †duadh; cf. SG duaidh f. ‘hardship, toil; unfortunate event, calamity’ (EG dúaiġe ‘malevolence, wickedness’).
and derivative forms such as SG duadh-obair ‘hard labour; handicraft’, †duadhal ‘hard, difficult, laborious’ and †duadhmhor ‘laborious’ (Dwelly 1911).
Derivatives: duathar yields the derivative adjective duatharach (MacDomhnuill 1741, 134: duatharach, dubhtharach ‘shady’; HSS 1828, with a cross-reference to dutharach, but for which no entry occurs; MacLeod and Dewar 1839: ‘dusky’, along with a cross-reference to dutharach, but for which no entry occurs; Dieckhoff 1932: dubharach [duɐhɐrɐK] ‘shady, dusky’), the noun duatharachd (MacLennan 1925: ‘murkiness, obscurity; mystery’) and the verb duatharaich (Dwelly 1911: ‘to vilify etc.’; MacLennan 1925: ‘to obscure’). Other forms that may be formed on SG †duadh include the adjectives duathal (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘obscure; terrible’, South Uist, Tiree; cf. Dwelly’s †duadhal, above), duathail (ibid.: ‘gloomy’, Harris) and duatharrach ‘dark’ (ibid.: [d̪u̟əhɑrɑx]
In which medial [r] = [ɍ] /ʀ/, rather than [ɾ] /r/.
‘dark (moonless)’, North Uist); cf. also the adjective duathasach (ibid.: ‘grim’, Skye) and the noun duaras (CG VI, 63: ‘unpleasantness’, and which CG’s editor Angus Matheson tentatively connects with duathar).
The development of SG duathar (and therefore of duatharachd) is not confirmed, but it may ultimately be a variant of SG dubhar, under the influence of SG †duadh and/or its derivatives; certainly, it appears to have no connection with the proper noun ON Dumbr.