v1.0
Published 01/10/24
gadhar m. [ˈɡ̊ə-əɾ],
Cf. /gɤ.ər/ (AFB˄).
gen. gadhair -[əɾʲ], ‘hound’
Dwelly 1911: ‘lurcher; cross-bred dog, being half greyhound and half foxhound; (anciently) greyhound, mastiff’.
is derived by MacBain (1896) and Henderson (1910, 130) from ON gagarr m. ‘dog’ – so also McDonald (2009, 356) – and by Mackay (1897, 95) from Ice. gagarr m. ‘idem’. For SG gadhar (occasionally spelt gaothar, e.g. MacBain), cf. Ir. gadhar ‘dog, harrier, beagle’ (Ó Dónaill 1977), both of which go back to EG gaḋar, earlier gaġar, which is also derived from Old Norse (Meyer 1891, 461; Marstrander 1915a, 61, 81, 112; de Vries 1962; Schulze-Thulin 1996, 105).
The spelling gaḋar arises once EG ḋ, earlier /ð/, had fallen together with ġ /ɣ/, a process that must have been complete by the 13th century (O’Rahilly 1926b, esp. 163–64 and 193–95; 1976, 65; Thurneysen 1975, 77; also Ó Maolalaigh 2006a, 42; 2008, 231–33). Although the change from gaġar > gaḋar may simply be a spelling hypercorrection, Professor Ó Maolalaigh (pers. comm.) suggests it might reflect a hypercorrect pronunciation while the change in ḋ from /ð/ > /ɣ/ was still in progress. Ó Maolalaigh (ibid., 233) notes the parallel of OG seġ, seḋ ‘strength, vigour etc.’ (Matasović 2009, 327, s.v. *sego-), which yields SG seadh, which Breeze (2003) takes to be behind [O]Scots shayth, a form that occurs in the Records of Elgin (Cramond 1903 I, 72, 88): (1542) The assise decernit that Angnes Stone vrangit in the saying to Necoll Moressone that shayth [?leg. na shayth (DOST˄)] war it to gadder ane dussane of quyins and gar lesch him quhill tha var ane inch of him togidder, for the qlk sche is in ane amerchiament, and (1546) Thomas Beyn for the wrangus slaying of ane zoung swyn out of his shayth pertenying to Johne Crokatt for the quhilk the said Thomas sall pay to the said Johne four sillingis. OED˄ defines shayth as ‘reason, what is reasonable; also, (a person’s) rights’, so also CSD1 (1985) and Breeze. However, DOST˄ (Vol. VIII, published in 2000) takes shayth to be a variant spelling of OScots scath(e) etc., comparing MEng. scathe, OEng. sc(e)aða ‘one who injures; hurt, injury’, ON skaði ‘harm, damage’ and OFris. skatha, skada ‘injury’, defining Scots scath(e) etc. as ‘harm, damage; hurt suffered, threatened or perpetrated’, and more specifically as ‘a cause of harm; a matter of regret’ (DOST 4(b)): thus (1542) ?‘the judicial inquiry found that Agnes Stone committed a misdemeanour in saying to Nicol Morrison that it was not injurious/regrettable to collect a dozen whin cuttings and have him lashed ...’, and as ‘damage to property, etc., caused by trespassing animals belonging to a neighbour’ (DOST 3 (5)(b)): thus (1546) ?‘... for the unlawful slaying of John Crockett’s young pig that damaged his [Thomas’s] property ...’. CSD2 (2017) follows CSD1, although it extends the terminus ante quem of shayth to the early 17th century: see DOST 3(5)(b): (1608) Giff it hapin ony man to fund ony swyn in ony shayth (Inverurie Burgh Court, 1605–12 MS NAS B36/6/1. Transcr. DOST Lib.): thus ?‘If it befall any man to find any pig in any act of causing damage to a neighbour’s property’. (William Ashford (pers. comm.) reports that, while working documents show that OED and DOST etymologies were consulted during preparation of CSD2, and while consultation of DOST was able to establish the new, 17th-century cut-off date, why CSD2 favoured OED/CSD1’s Gaelic over DOST’s Old English origin is not apparent: the simplest explanation is probably that the discrepancy was missed.)
ON gagar acc., with medial /ɣ/, would theoretically yield EG gaġar. However, while the earliest attestation of EG gaġar is in an early 14th-century vellum manuscript,
Rawlinson B 506, folio 29b.
the law text in which it occurs, as Kelly (2023, 118) notes, predates the 9th century.
ON gagarr is a rare, poetic word (NO; Zoëga 1910), apparently based on the verb gaga ‘to mock’ (de Vries 1962). EG gaġar may also be onomatopoeic in origin.