v1.0
Published 01/10/24
geadas m. [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥əs̪],
Cf. (Glengarry) [gˈjédəs] (Dieckhoff 1932), (Gairloch) [ɡ̊’ɛtəs], [ɡ̊’ɛtɑs] (Wentworth 2003, s.v. pike), but /gʲedəs/ (AFB˄).
gen. geadais [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥iʃ], ‘pike, Esox lucius’. A number of forms are found:
A. geads, geadas, geadasg, geastag
A 1. geads [ɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥s̪]
In Lhuyd 1700, 137, §X.43: pike ‘geds’, Inverness; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: written geadas but transcribed as [ɡ´ɛd̪s], Kingussie.
A 2. geadas [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥əs̪]
(i) geadus (Lhuyd 1707, App.: ‘pike or jack [a young pike]’, Scotland; Shaw 1780), now spelt geadas (ii);
(ii) geadas (MacFarlane 1815: ‘pike’; Armstrong 1825: ‘idem’; HSS 1828: ‘idem’; McAlpine 1832: ‘idem’; MacEachen 1842: ‘idem’; Forbes 1905, 43: ‘idem’; Dwelly 1911: ‘large trout; grilse; young pike’; MacLennan 1925: ‘pike’; Dieckhoff 1932: [gˈjédəs] ‘pike’, Glengarry; Garvie 1999, 83: ‘pike, Esox lucius’; Wentworth 2003, s.v. pike: [ɡ̊’ɛtəs], [ɡ̊’ɛtɑs], Gairloch; AFB˄: /gʲedəs/ ‘pike, pickerel’; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘pike’, North Uist, Glenurquhart, [ɡed̪əs] [sic], Invergarry).
A 3. geadasg [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥əs̪k]
(i) geadasg (Armstrong 1825: ‘pike’; Dwelly 1911: see geadas; AFB˄: ‘pike, pickerel’; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: [ɡɛ̜:ˈtask]
With the stress mark shown after the stressed syllable. The informant’s long stressed vowel is unexpected; cf. similar lengthening in the same informant’s [jɛːs] for eas ‘weasel’ and [ʃɛ̜:liçək] for seilcheag ‘snail’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄).
‘pike’, Killin);
(ii) gead-iasg (Forbes 1905, 43: ‘pike’; Dwelly 1911: see geadas).
A 4. geastag [ˈɡ̊ʲɛs̪t̪aɡ̊]
In Dwelly 1911: ‘pike’.
B. gead [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥]
In Dwelly 1911: ‘pike’; AFB˄: ‘pike, pickerel’.
C. geadag [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥aɡ̊]
(i) geadag (Armstrong 1825: ‘young pike’; HSS 1828: ‘large trout’; Forbes 1905, 43: ‘idem’; MacLennan 1925: ‘grilse; large trout; young salmon’; Garvie 1999, 83: ‘salmon trout’; Wentworth 2003, s.vv. grilse, salmon: Gairloch; LASID IV, 280, Item 1167: [g´ɛdɑ̆g], Sutherland; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘?grilse or pike’, Applecross; AFB˄: ‘grilse’);
(ii) geaddag (Mackay 1897, 93: ‘pike’), in error for geadag.
D. geadais [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥iʃ]
In Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: an unidentified fish, Applecross; ibid.: a variant of geadas, North Uist.
E. geadrais, geadraisg
E 1. geadrais [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥ɾiʃ]
(i) geadris (MacLennan 1925: see geadas), in error for geadrais (ii);
(ii) geadrais (LASID IV, 258, Item 1167: [g´aḍriʃ] ([g´ɛ̀ḍriʃ]) ‘?’, Lewis).
E 2. geadraisg [ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥ɾiʃkʲ]
In Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘pike’, Lewis; AFB˄: ‘pike, pickerel’.
SG gead is derived from ON gedda f. ‘pike; codling’ (NO) by Craigie (1894, 163), Marstrander (1915a, 102) and McDonald (2009, 356–57). SG geadas is derived from the same source by Craigie (1894, 163), MacBain (1896; 1911), Henderson (1910, 121, in which ‘pipe’ is a typesetting error for ‘pike’), Bugge (1912, 305), Marstrander (1915a, 102), MacLennan (1925), Stewart (2004, 410) and McDonald (2009, 356–57). For the final syllable, Bugge notes Marstrander’s comparison with SG ucas
Which Bugge incorrectly spells uccas.
‘saithe’ (s.v.) and ròcas
Which Bugge incorrectly spells rocas.
‘rook etc.’ (s.v.), although Marstrander (1915a, 133–34) later suggests that Ir. geadús and SG geadas go back to an older EG *geadbhas < ON *geddu-fiskr (-viskr), with the genitive of gedda and ON fiskr m. ‘fish’. However, in this scenario SG geadas might yield final -[as̪], whereas -[əs̪] is the norm, -[as̪] attested only as a variant form in Gairloch (Wentworth 2003). However, the Irish form is a ghost word: MacBain’s reference to Ir. geadus, Bugge’s to Ir. gedas [sic] and geadus, and Marstrander’s to Ir. geadús go back to O’Brien’s (1768: geadus ‘pike or jack’), O’Reilly’s (the 1817 1st edition: geadus ‘pike-fish’) and/or Dinneen’s (the 1904 1st edition: geadús ‘pike’, contrast the 1927 2nd edition: geadas ‘pike’) Irish dictionaries, which have merely adopted Lhuyd’s (1707, App.) SG geadus ‘pike or jack’.
O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary inadvertently gives both gedas and geadus, an oversight uncorrected in the 2nd (1821) and revised 3rd (1864) editions and in the subsequent 1877 reprint; hence Bugge’s forms. Among Irish words for ‘pike’, Scharff (1916, 114) lists gedas from O’Reilly 1877 and geadús from Dinneen 1904, coincidentally also the Irish forms cited by McDonald (2009, 356–57).
,
De Vries (1962) lists ON gedda yielding Middle Irish geadús, citing Craigie. Firstly, geadús is Dinneen’s 1904 form: the word is not attested in Middle Irish; secondly, Craigie’s forms are SG gead and geadas (see above).
Mackay (1897, 93: geaddag) derives SG geadag from Ice. geddas, but this is presumably a typesetting error for Ice. gedda; cf. McDonald’s (2009, 356–57) derivation of geadag from ON gedda. However, HSS (1828: ‘large trout’) connects the Gaelic word with Scots ged ‘pike’.
ON gedda would formally yield SG *geada *[ˈɡ̊ʲɛd̪̥ə] or *[ˈɡ̊ʲed̪̥ə], which might yield gead via apocope; Scots ged would be expected to yield SG gead directly. The principle Gaelic form is of course geadas, and the circumstantial evidence seems to favour a Scots origin: a plural Scots geds
Cf. the plural usage in (1722) ‘[t]he fishes in it is pycks, pairches and geds’ (SND˄, s.v. ged).]
yields SG (A 1) geads regularly (cf. SG ròcas, q.v.), which yields (A 2) geadas (perhaps on the analogy of SG ucas, q.v.),
And/or the Gaelic suffix -as (Cox 2017, 121), which is generally used in abstract noun formations, but occurs concretely for example in SG camas (bay’ (< cam adj. ‘bent’) and caolas ‘straits’ (< caol adj. ‘narrow’) (Cox 2002a, 60). While SG geadas would arise directly from a disyllabic, plural MScots geddis, borrowing would have to predate the late 16th century and loss of the vowel of the plural morpheme in this environment (Aitken 2002, 71–72).
which in turn yields (A 3) geadasg (cf. SG amhas > tamhasg, s.v. pronnasg), and (A 4) geastag, with metathesis.
For Dwelly’s (1911) ‘gead-iasg, see geadas’, cf. Armstrong (1825), who interprets geadasg as gead-iasg, without further explanation, although SG gead in the sense ‘spot’ and iasg ‘fish’ may be intended on account of the pike’s white spots; cf. Ir. gailliasc ‘pike’, which goes back to EG galliasc, a closed compound of gall + íasc (eDIL˄, s.v. Gall), perhaps in the sense ‘invader- or attack-fish’, from the fish’s use of ambush tactics in hunting other fish – the Irish word (cf. O’Begly 1732, s.v. pike ‘gailliasc’) was adopted by Shaw (1780), who is in turn referenced in Armstrong 1825 and HSS 1828.
Scots (sing.) ged was itself borrowed, yielding SG gead, which with addition of the Gaelic diminutive suffix -ag yields SG (C) geadag, although Scots geddick (‘the lesser sand eel’ < Scots ged + the dim. suffix -ick etc. (SND˄)) may have had an influence. For the non-palatal ~ palatal alternation in SG geadas ~ (D) geadais, cf. SG ròcas ~ ròcais (q.v.); for intrusive -r- in (E 1) geadrais and (E 2) geadraisg, cf. SG alltapadh ~ alltrapadh (s.v. tapadh).
As senses of gead, Dwelly (1911) lists ‘small spot of arable land, ridge, lazy-bed; bed in a garden; lock of hair; star or spot in a horse’s forehead; buttock, haunch; pike (fish)’ (cf. Ir. gead ‘a blaze or white star on the forehead of a horse; a grey spot in the human hair; a compact knot; a little spot of ground; buttock, haunch’ (Dinneen 1947) and geadán ‘(bare) patch; buttock(s), bottom’ (Ó Dónaill 1977), from which it might be surmised that gead in the sense ‘pike’ is an extension of gead in the sense ‘small spot etc.’, with reference to the fish’s light-coloured spots, but this seems unlikely: a formation from gead + suffix such as geadas and geadag would be expected, rather than simply gead; further, the sense ‘(round) spot on something’ as suggested for the fish appears to be (in spite of Kirk’s (1690) listing brodh, geadt, sal, ball, dadum, rinn, cáidhe ‘an atom, point, spot’) an otherwise unattested extension of gead in the sense ‘patch or small portion of something’.