v1.0
Published 01/10/24
fors m. [fɔʂ], gen. forsa [ˈfɔʂə], ‘waterfall’ is derived by Oftedal (1980, 173–74) from Old Norse, viz. ON fors m. ‘idem’; so also McDonald (2009, 354) and Cox (2022, 703–04 + fn 400); the phonetic development is regular. The loan-word is now obsolete but survives as a petrified element within Lewis place-names, e.g. SG Abhainn an Fhorsa [ˌãviɲ ə ˈᵰ̪ɔʂə] ‘the river of the waterfall’ NB058324; contrast SG (Scarp) Abhainn Fors ‘the river of—’ NA984152 (cf. MacLennan 2001, 47), in which *Fors is a loan-name (Cox ibid.).