ONlwSG

meallach adj. [ˈmjɑ̃ɫəx], -[ax], -[ɔx] in the sense ‘full of bent-grass’ is derived by Watson (1904, 228: mealach) from ON melr m. ‘bent-grass’, although ON melr nom. would formally yield SG *mealr *[ˈmjɑ̃ɫ̪͡ɑɾ], while ON mel acc. would formally yield *meal *[mjɑ̃ɫ̪].

Final -r of ON melr is the nominative singular ending and not part of the stem.

However, there is some doubt about the status of Watson’s mealach (meallach), which he extrapolates from the place-name ‘Lochan Mealaich between Strathy and Armadale, in Sutherland’, a truncation of his earlier description ‘Lochan Meallaich betw[een] Strathy & Armadale; full of bent-grass to which the cattle used to swim out. Said to have been once drained & sown’ (Carmichael-Watson: Coll-97/CW9, p. 45). Dr Jacob King (pers. comm.) suggests that Watson may have confused Lochan Ealach (OS 1843–82 NC819650) with Loch Meala (OS 1843–82 NC787569), south of Armadale, and this is the inference that might be drawn from NLS’s association of Timothy Pont’s (c. 1583–96) L: na nellach or Swan~ Loch with (Burnett and Scott 1855) Loch Mella, (OS 1843–82) Loch Meala NC788570 (NLS, s.v. L: na nellach), but cf. Pont’s Mellach (NLS, s.v. Mellach, at approx. NC688603) between Borgie and Loch a’ Chlèibh, west of Armadale.

Approx. 6.5 miles (10.5 km) ENE of Loch Meala. Lochan Ealach is taken to mean ‘the lakelet of (the) swan’, with gen. sing. of SG eala ‘swan’; Loch Meala is taken to mean ‘honey lake’, taking its specific element from the nearby Cnoc Meala (OS Name-Books: Sutherland Vol. 20, 145) ‘the hill of (the) honey’, with gen. sing. of SG mil ‘honey’.

At any rate, Watson’s adjective meal(l)ach should probably be taken as a noun – in the genitive in his Lochan Meal(l)aich – cf. Dwelly App.’s meallach m., described as ‘colloquial for [SG] mùrach “sand-hill on the sea-shore” ’.

SG meallach is most probably a derivative of meall ‘lump, mass of any matter etc.’ (Dwelly 1911), from EG mell ‘ball, sphere, round mass; round protuberance, swelling’ (eDIL^˄) + the suffix -ach.

See also under mealbhach, mealbhan, meilearach and millteach.