ONlwSG

mealbhach f. [ˈmjɑ̃ɫ̪͡ɑvəx], -[ax], -[ɔx], gen./dat. mealbhaich [ˈmjɑ̃ɫ̪͡ɑviç], in the sense ‘links where bent-grass grows’ is derived by Goodrich-Freer (1897, 67–68: South Uist) from ON *mel-bakki ‘bent-grass bank’, from the stem form of ON melr m. + bakki m.; so also John Lorne Campbell (in McDonald 1972, s.v. mealbhach). However, ON b- [b] and -kk- [kk] would not be expected to yield SG bh [v] and ch [x]. McDonald (2009, 386) considers the loan uncertain: ‘it is possibly [a] corruption or misunderstanding of [SG] mealbhan “sea-bent, sand-dunes with sea-bent growing on them”, or mealbhag “corn poppy”.’

McDonald (1972: South Uist) records a normalised dative form mealbhaich, mealathaich, as well as the place-name Mealathach, near Eoligarry NF703077; 

For th (= hiatus or /h/) for bh /v/, see Watson 1996, 376–77 and 1999, 350–51.

cf. AFB^˄: mealbhaich /mjaLavɪç/ ‘creeping bent-grass, spreading bent, carpet bent-grass, redtop (Agrostis stolonifera); sand-dune covered in creeping bent’, Benbecula.

SG mealbhan is a related word (which Watson (1904, 228) derives from ON melr also), with senses similar to those of mealbhach: Robertson (1907a, 123) gives ‘sea-bent (Sutherland and Easter Ross) – called elsewhere mùran – and, in Wester Ross, the banks or dunes of sand on which this grass grows’; MacBain (1911) ‘sand-dunes with bent (Wester Ross)’; Dwelly (1911) ‘a stretch of sand-dunes with sea-bent growing on them (Wester Ross), creeping bent, Agrostis stolonifera (Easter Ross and Sutherland)’; Wentworth (2003, s.vv. dune, sand-dune) ‘mealbhan’, Wester Ross; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄ [mjɑɫɑvɑṉ] ‘sand-dune’, Wester Ross, and [mjɑ̃ɫu̜ɑ̃ṉ] ‘sea-bent’, East Sutherland; Watson (2022, 245) /mjɑLəvɑn/ ‘marram, bentgrass, Agrostis stolonfera’, Easter Ross; and AFB^˄ /mjaLavan/, as mealbhaich, above.

SG mealbhach and mealbhan go back to SG mealbh + the suffixes -ach and -an, respectively. Mealbh and its diminutive form mealbhag are attested in the senses ‘satchel, budget, knapsack’ (Shaw 1780, s.vv. mealb[h], mealbhog; Armstrong 1825, s.vv. mealbh, mealbhag; Dwelly 1911: idem), also ‘pocket’ (Shaw and Armstrong, s.v.). Mealbhag also has the sense ‘corn poppy’, 

E.g. HSS 1828; M^cAlpine 1832; MacLeod & Dewar 1831; and MacBain 1896, where SG mealbhag is compared with Lat. malva ‘mallow’.

from the shape of its seed pod.

Variants of SG mealbhag in the sense ‘corn poppy’ include bailbheag, beilbheag (e.g. MacBain 1911), meilbheag (e.g. Dwelly 1911). For SG mealbhag in the sense ‘pot scrubber’ (AFB^˄), cf. SG mealltrach and mealltrag, s.v. millteach. For initial m- > b-, presumably through loss of nasalisation in lenited forms, compare the opposite development of bh > mh in nasalised contexts (Ó Maolalaigh 2003, 128–29). For the forms meilbheag, bailbheag and beilbheag, we might posit an earlier *meilbh, a dative form of a feminine mealbh, although otherwise unexplained variation between non-palatalised and palatalised consonants before the suffix -(e)ag occurs elsewhere: SG aslag ~ aisleag, annlag ~ ainnleag (s.v. asaileag), bìodag ~ bìdeag (s.v. bìdeadh), curracag ~ curraiceag (s.v. urrachdag), ulbhag ~ uilbheag (s.v. ulbh).

Cf. Ir. mealbh (Lhuyd 1707: ‘satchel, budget’, from Plunkett 1662; O’Brien 1786: ‘satchel, budget, knapsack’) and mealbhóg (O’Brien: ‘satchel, budget, knapsack’; Dinneen 1947: ‘bag, budget, knapsack, water-bottle; belly, podgy person’);

Mealbhóg is used in Hiberno-English in the sense ‘small bag, satchel (for shopping)’ (Dolan 2020), also ‘a blow or beating’ (Moylan 1996, 178: Kilkenny).

also Ir. mealbhán ‘lump, as of snow’ (Dinneen).

SG and Ir. mealbh, the primary sense of which is arguably ‘bag’ or similar, go back to an unattested EG *melḃ, possibly borrowed from MEng. *belw (a northern form of beli ‘belly, bag’).

After vocalisation (c. 1200 (Brook 1975, 20)) of [ɣ] in OEng. (Anglian) bælġ ‘bag, skin, envelope, hull (of beans and peas)’, cognate with OG bolg ‘bag, satchel, sack; belly, stomach; smith’s bellows etc.’ (eDIL^˄), which in turn gives Ir. bolg and SG bolg, balg.

M- for initial b- may be at least partly due to the analogy of SG màla, màileid, Ir. mála, máilín ‘bag etc.’ (< MEng. māl(e) ‘bag, pouch’ (MED^˄; cf. MacBain 1911), from AN male ‘bag’ (OED^˄), or, in the case of Irish, directly from Anglo-Norman (Risk 1974, 83)); otherwise it may be the result of back-formation within Early Gaelic, with lenited b- (i.e. [β]) confused with nasalised [β˜], the lenited form of m-.

See under fn 3, above.

On this basis, the semantic development of SG mealbhach and mealbhan may be ‘bag-like place, dune(s) → dunes/links covered with sea-bent → sea-bent’.

For SG mealbhach, a formation in final (len.) EG maġ ‘plain; open stretch of land’ (SG magh) might also be considered. However, while compounds consisting of a loan from ON mel acc. ‘bent-grass’ or of EG mell ‘ball, sphere, round mass; round protuberance, swelling’ (SG meall) + EG maġ might be phonologically possible given a number of developments, they seem semantically less appropriate for what are essentially banks or dunes.

See also under meallach, meilearach and millteach.