v1.0
Published 01/10/24
fang f.
MacEachen (1842: gen. faing), MacLennan (1925: no genitive cited) and Dieckhoff (1932: no genitive cited) give masculine.
[fãŋɡ̊] (occasionally [fãŋ], e.g. in parts of Skye, or [fɛ̃ŋɡ̊], e.g. in Islay) or, in the north-west,
Lewis, North and West Sutherland, Wester Ross, Raasay and parts of Skye.
faing [fãĩŋʲɡ̊ʲ], gen. fainge -[ə],
Cf. SGDS Items 394 fang, 395 (dat.) faing. Also, for Islay and Skye, see Holmer 1938, 164; for Kintyre, see Holmer 1962, 53; for East Perthshire, see Ó Murchú 1989, 340; for West Perthshire, see Ó Murchú 2022, 231; for Gairloch, see Wentworth 2003, s.v. fank; and for Lewis, see Borgstrøm 1940, 77, and Oftedal 1956, 88.
refers principally to ‘a fank, a pen or enclosure for catching or rounding up animals, esp. sheep and cattle; the process of catching or rounding up animals’, but senses cited include ‘a pound to catch cattle in, a place to catch cattle’ (Shaw 1780; Mac Farlan 1795; MacFarlane 1815; Armstrong 1825), ‘a sheep pen’ (HSS 1828; MacLeod and Dewar 1839; MacEachen 1842; Dwelly 1911; Dieckhoff 1932; AFB˄), ‘a fank’ (McAlpine 1832; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; Wentworth 2003; AFB˄), ‘confinement, strait, difficulty, hardship’ (HSS 1828; MacLeod and Dewar 1839; Dwelly 1911), ‘durance, custody’ (McAlpine 1832; MacLennan 1925), ‘prison’ (MacEachen 1842; Dwelly 1911).
MacBain (1911) derives SG fang from Scots fank ‘a sheepfold, a walled or fenced pen for sheep; a sheep-shearing at a fank; a small cattle-fair, held at a fank’ (SND˄, s.v. 2fank); so MacLennan (1925), Borgstrøm (1940, 770) and Oftedal (1956, 88). Christiansen (1938, 5, 18) connects faing (which he mistakenly describes as the genitive of fang) with Scots fank or Norw. fang, fanga, but the verbal noun SG fangadh with ON fanga. Cox (1987 II, 109, No. 1340) supports a derivation from ON fang nt. ‘grasp, hold; embrace’ (not attested with the specific sense of ‘sheep-pen’), from the Old Norse verb fanga ‘to capture, imprison; get hold of ’ (NO),
So also Cox 1991, 493; 1992, 138.
and McDonald (2009, 352) considers the Old Norse derivation likely.
ON fang would be expected to yield SG [fãŋɡ̊] in the first instance, cf. the Lewis place-names ON *Langavatn ‘(the) long loch’ > SG Langabhat [ˈɫ̪ɑ̃ŋɡ̊ə ˌvaʰt̪]; ON *Mangarastað acc. ‘(the) farm of the pedlar’ > SG Mangarstadh [ˈmãŋɡ̊ə ˌʂʈaɣ]; ON *Tunga ‘(the) tongue’ > SG Tunga [ˈt̪ʰũŋɡ̊ə]; ON *Vangssætr ‘(the) sheiling of the meadow’ > SG Ungaiseadar [ˈũũŋɡ̊ə ˌ ʃad̪̥əɾ]; although in Lewis the loan-word langa [ˈɫ̪ɑ̃ɣə] ‘ling’ (< ON langa f., s.v. langa) has developed along the lines of native SG (Lewis) teanga [ˈtʲʰɛ̃ɣə] ‘tongue’ (OG tengae) (Cox 2022, 149–50).
Scots fank [faŋk] might also be expected to yield SG [fãŋɡ̊] in the first instance, cf. Scots anker (anchor) > SG (Easter Ross) angar /ɑŋɡər/ (Watson 2022, 101), s.v. acaire); Scots blink > SG bliong [blũ̟ŋɡ] etc. ‘lythe’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄), s.v. bliong); Scots brank > SG brang [b̥ɾãŋɡ̊] ‘a horse’s halter’; and (with the development in Gaelic of a palatalised velar cluster, with subsequent diphthongisation of the preceding vowel) Scots bink (benk) > SG being [b̥ẽĩŋʲɡ̊ʲ] ‘bench’ (s.v. being); Scots thank > SG taing [t̪ʰãĩŋʲɡ̊ʲ] ‘thanks’; Scots stank > SG staing [s̪t̪ãĩŋʲɡ̊ʲ] ‘ditch; difficulty’ (although some recent loans show Scots/Eng. nk [ŋk] yielding SG nc [ŋ̊k] /ɴk/: Scots/Eng. bank > SG banc(a) [ˈb̥ãŋ̊k(ə)]; Scots/Eng. tank > SG tanc(a) [ˈt̪ʰãŋ̊k(ə)]; Scots funk > SG func [ˈfũŋ̊k];
Cf. Oftedal 1956, 140: /fũNk/. The Scottish Gaelic word func is usually used with a negative verb to mean ‘nothing’ and probably derives from Scots funk, a variant of fung, in the sense ‘blow, cuff, kick; throw, toss’ (SND˄, s.v. 1fung).
and (with palatalisation) Scots blink > SG blincean [ˈb̥lĩŋ̊ʲkʲan] ‘torch, link’; Scots/Eng. ink > SG inc(e) [ˈĩŋ̊ʲkʲ(ə)]).
Doublets with both unpalatalised and palatalised forms are also found: Scots banket > SG bangaid [ˈb̥ãŋɡ̊ad̥ʲ] ~ baingeaid [ˈb̥ãĩŋʲɡ̊ʲad̥ʲ] ‘banquet’; Scots Frank ⇒ SG Frangach [ˈfɾãŋɡ̊əx] etc. ~ Fraingeach [ˈfɾãĩŋʲɡ̊ʲəx] etc. ‘French’.
Yet ≈SND˄ (s.v. 2fank) notes that, although Scots fank probably equals Scots fang ‘booty, plunder, stolen property; grasp, clutches, durance’
Warrack (1911) gives ‘a trap, “a tight place”’ and EDDo˄ ‘a trap, “a fix, a tight place”’.
(s.v. 1fang, senses 1 and 3), ‘the phonology shows reborrowing from Scottish Gaelic and Irish fang “enclosure”’. However, while Scots fang [faŋ] would indeed be expected to yield SG [fãŋɡ̊] in the first instance, cf. Scots thrang [θraŋ] > SG trang [t̪ʰɾãŋɡ̊] ‘busy’,
In the case of SG trang, the alternative is to date its borrowing from Scots to before the simplification of Scots /ŋɡ/, which took place by the late 14th century at least (cf. Johnston 1997, 101).
and (with palatalisation) Scots dang [daŋ] > SG daing [d̪̥ãĩŋʲɡ̊ʲ] ‘damn’, the likelihood that SG fang would yield Scots fank seems less certain.
SND˄’s reference to Ir. fang is problematic: it seems to occur only in O’Reilly’s (1817; 1864: ‘pound, prison for cattle’) Irish dictionary, where it may well have been adopted from Shaw’s (1780), Mac Farlan’s (1795) and/or MacFarlane’s (1815) Scottish Gaelic dictionaries.
HSS 1828 cites O’Reilly’s Ir. fang.
However, the form fanca does occur in Antrim (Dinneen 1947: ‘sheep pen’; Holmer 1942, 193: /fɑŋkə/ ‘sheepfold’); cf. also Ir. panc (Dinneen: ‘the cow market at a fair’, Donegal; Ó Dónaill 1977: panc (aonaigh) ‘fair-ground’), which is possibly from fanc(a), via back-formation.
It seems probable, then, that either Scots fang or Scots fank (as a variant of fang, cf. Scots fangle ~ fankle
Frequentative forms of fang ~ fank, respectively (SND˄).
and fung ~ funk) or both, over time, gave rise to SG fang and faing, and probably Scots fank to Ir. fanca;
Cf. also the Kintyre form [faŋk], otherwise [fɛŋg], recorded by Holmer (1962, 53, 72).
on that basis, recourse to a loan from ON fang is unnecessary. A semantic development ultimately from ‘the fact of confinement’ to ‘the place of confinement’ and to ‘the process of confining’ seems plausible, and the shift in the sense of the Gaelic term as recorded, from ‘cattle pound’ in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to ‘sheep pen’ in the second half of the 19th century, may well reflect changing practice in animal husbandry and the introduction of large-scale sheep farming into the Highlands and Islands over that period.
See, for example, Hunter 2019, 49.
Derivatives: A number of open compounds are found, e.g. fang-chaorach ‘sheep-pen’ (LASID IV, 260, s.v. fainc, Lewis), fang-glacaidh ‘gripping-pen’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: North Uist, Skye, Mull), fang ghlacaidh (ibid.: Gairloch), faing-ghlacaidh ‘idem’, faing an dupi/faing-dhupaidh [sic] ‘dipping-pen’ and faing (togail) nan uan ‘lamb-separating pen’ (ibid.: Lewis); also the verbs fangaim (Shaw 1780: ‘I impound, enclose in a fold’), i.e. fang (Armstrong 1825: ‘to drive into a fold or pen’; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘to put an animal into a position where it can be caught’, Harris) and fangaich (MacFarlane 1815: ‘to put in a fold’; Armstrong: ‘to fold, gather in a fold or pen’; HSS 1828: ‘to enclose, put into a fold’; MacLeod and Dewar 1839: ‘idem’; MacEachen 1842: ‘idem’; Dwelly 1911: ‘to enclose, pen, fold’; MacLennan 1925: ‘to put into a fold’; AFB˄: ‘to enclose, pen’); the verbal nouns fangadh (Mac Farlan 1795: ‘to drive to a fold’ [sic]; HSS 1828: ‘penning, enclosing in a sheep fold’; MacLeod and Dewar 1839: ‘idem’; Christiansen 1938, 18: fangadh, 25: fangach [sic] ‘round up sheep’, Lewis), fangachadh (Armstrong 1825: ‘driving into a fold, a penning of cattle’; HSS 1828: ‘penning, enclosing in a sheep fold’; MacLeod and Dewar 1839: ‘idem’; MacEachen 1842; Dwelly 1911: ‘penning of cattle or sheep, driving into a fold’; AFB˄: ‘penning, driving into a cattle fold’) and fangaich (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘fanking, enclosing animals in a fank’, Arran); and the adjective fangach (Dwelly 1911: ‘full of folds or pens etc.’; AFB˄: ‘pertaining to or abounding in fanks etc.’).