ONlwSG

ealbhar m. [ˈjɑɫ̪͡ɑvəɾ],

Cf. MacLennan 1925: [yalvur] – with stressed epenthesis understood; cf. dealbh [jalv] (ibid.).

gen. ?ealbhair -[ɾʲ], ‘good-for-nothing fellow’ is derived by MacBain (1896) from ON álfr (leg. alfr) m. ‘elf, fairy’ and Mackay (1897, 91, who routinely disregards lengthmarks) from Ice. alfr (leg. álfr) ‘elf, fairy; also (Cleasby 1874) a silly, vacant person’.

≈MacBain has ‘ealbhar “a good-for-nothing fellow” (Sutherland); from Norse álfr ‘elf, a vacant, silly person’), while ≈Mackay (writing of the Sutherland Gaelic dialect) has ‘ealbhar “a good-for-nothing fellow”, Ice. alfr ‘an elf’ – as the elves had power to bewitch men, “a silly vacant person” is in Iceland called alfr (Cleasby)’. Although MacBain published the year before Mackay, it may be that Mackay was in fact MacBain’s source.

Stewart (2004, 410) follows MacLennan (1925) in supporting an Old Norse derivation, although in fact the latter merely compares ON álfr (sic). However, according to Oftedal (1962a, 120) SG ealbhar is one of a number of Scottish Gaelic words ‘none of which can be safely identified with Norse words’.

It is not strictly true to say, as McDonald (2009, 338) does, that Oftedal prefers English as a source.

McDonald (2009, 338) considers the loan uncertain.

ON alfr m., with a short vowel, would formally yield SG *albhar *[ˈɑɫ̪͡ɑvəɾ]; Ice. álfr, with a lengthened stressed vowel, would formally yield SG *àlbhar *[ˈɑːɫ̪vəɾ]. In addition, survival in Scottish Gaelic of the Old Norse nominative (masculine) case ending -r would be unusual, as most Norse loans seem to have been borrowed in an oblique case: an accusative ON alf would formally yield SG *albh *[ˈɑɫ̪͡ɑv].

A more likely source may be Scots elf, used as ‘a term of contempt or opprobrium’ (Warrack 1911): a loan-blend from Scots elf + the Scottish Gaelic agentive suffix -ar would yield SG ealbhar *[ˈɛɫ̪͡ɛvəɾ] and (in West Sutherland) [ˈjɑɫ̪͡ɑvəɾ] regularly (cf. SGDS Item 371: earball, Points 128–30).

The nature and origin of the suffix is problematic. The word is associated with Sutherland, where an original -air -[aɾʲ] could yield either -[aɾ] or -[əɾ] or both (cf. SGDS Item 393, Points 139–150); cf. duil fhear, s.v. On confusion between the agentive suffixes -air and -aire -[əɾʲə], see Ó Maolalaigh 2013, 210–13.

AFB lists SG ailbhear m. /ɛlɛvər/ ‘elf’; its editor Michael Bauer explains (pers. comm.) that this is a neologism based on Eng. elf (following the pattern of ON alfr), created while work was being carried out on Scottish Gaelic versions of emoji names, when it was felt best to avoid SG ealbhar and its more derogatory sense.