v1.0
Published 01/10/24
pronnasg m. [ˈpʰɾɔ̃ᵰ̪əs̪k] ‘sulphur, brimstone’. Stewart (2004, 412) derives this word from ON brennisteinn (= brennusteinn, with the genitive of brenna f. ‘burning’ + steinn m. ‘stone’); McDonald (2009, 345) considers the loan uncertain. Although ON brennustein acc. would formally yield SG *breannaistean, which could account for some of the reflexes below, it is perhaps more likely that the word is a loan-blend from MScots brinstane, brynstan(e) etc., itself from northern MEng. idem (DOST˄), or directly from Middle English.
This may be the implication of MacBain’s (1911, s.v. pronnasg) ‘formed on Sc[ots] brunstane, [Old] Norse brennisteinn, Eng. brimstone’.
Scottish Gaelic reflexes of this word can be divided into two main groups:
1. SG pronn- etc.
The first syllable is based on forms such as SG pronn vb ‘to pound, grind etc.’,
Cf. pronnag ‘crumbs; rubbish’, pronnas ‘leavings of food, fragments’ (Dwelly 1911); pronnasg ‘crumbs, fragments’ (Wentworth 2003). SG pronn goes back to EG bronnaiḋ vb ‘spends, consumes; injures, damages’ (MacBain, s.v. †bronn; eDIL˄).
presumably with reference to the powdered form of sulphur; this is usually followed by an epenthetic vowel. The Harris reflex prenistir, however, preserves the original front vowel. The post-stress nasal, the st-cluster and the final consonant are found in both palatal and non-palatal forms. The final consonant alternates between original n and l or r: (Lewis) pronastan (Dwelly); (Harris) prenistir; (South Uist) pronnastan (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄); (Skye) pronastan, pronnastan, prunaistean, pronnastal; (Arran) pronnastair; (Perthshire) pronaistear, proin(i)stear; (Badenoch and Strathspey) pronnastail (Dwelly), pronnasdail (MacBain 1894b, 96).
In addition to other forms cited above, Dwelly gives proinnistean and pruinneastan.
However, the final syllable is dropped in Argyllshire, where a final cluster -sd/-st usually yields -sg (O’Rahilly 1976, 140): (Tiree) pronnasd, pronnasg; (Coll) pronnasg (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄). The essentially Argyllshire form pronnasg
Dwelly also cites prannasg, with a ~ o alternation.
is cited in most wordlists and dictionaries, e.g. Kirk (1702, in Campbell 1938, 90: pronnasc); MacDomhnuill (1741, 54: pronnusc); Shaw (1780: idem); Armstrong (1825: pronnasg, pronnusg); HSS (1828: pronnasc, pronnasg, pronnusg).
MacLennan (1925, s.v. pronnasg) cites Ir. pronnusc, so O’Reilly (1864), but this is mostly likely adapted from Kirk, so Dinneen (1947: pronnasc); contrast Ir. bromastún (Ó Dónaill 1977).
Pronnasg in the sense ‘sulphur’ falls together with pronnasg in the sense ‘fragments, crumbs etc.’ (e.g. Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄, s.v. pronnasg, prannasg), the final syllable of which may be a development from the nominally abstract suffix -as (Cox 2017, 121; Thurneysen 1975, 168) + epenthetic g (see fn 2, above), cf. the sporadic development of -s > -sg elsewhere, e.g. SG taibhleas (taibhleis, taibhliosg, taimhliosg, tàimhleasg) beside tàileasg ‘chess; backgammon’ (Dwelly), EG táiḃlis etc. < OFr. tables (eDIL˄, cf. ON tafl nt. ‘board-game’); and tamhasg ‘uncouth fellow’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: South Uist), ‘fool’ (Harris and Assynt), a variant of amhas, q.v. (for tamhasg in the sense ‘ghost’ (Barra and Harris), cf. tanas, tannas (> tanasg, tannasg) ‘idem’). The ending -asg in these examples coincides with the native -sk- suffix found for example in duileasg ‘dulse’, EG duilesc (Pedersen 1913 II, 19; Calder 1972, 181), and a number of words of unclear but possibly Scots provenance appear to be formed using this suffix or to be original plural forms that ultimately conform to it: brolasg ‘talkativeness’, cf. MScots brawl, braul vb ‘to boast loudly’ (DOST˄, s.v. 1brawl; cf. MacBain, s.v. brolaich); bùileasg ‘pothook’ (McDonald 1972, 53; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄) and bùlasg ‘idem; hooked pot handle’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄), cf. bùlas, bùlais ‘pothook’ (HSS), cf. Scots bools pl. ‘two crooked intruments of iron, linked together, used for lifting a pot by the ears’ (ibid.; SND˄, 2bool); crùilleasg ‘an old woman or instrument about to fall apart’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: South Uist), cf. Scots crile, cryle, croil, croyle, cruyle ‘dwarf, dumpy deformed person; frail person, animal or thing broken down from age or ill-usage’ (SND˄); piolasg ‘a mischievous young boy’ (ibid.: Harris), cf. Scots pill ‘penis; (metaphorically) a young ling’
Cf. SG cnap, s.v., > cnapan ‘small lump; block; knob (penis)’ and cnapach ‘boy’.
(Marwick 1929) and pils ‘insignificant little person, manikin, delicate weakly person’ (Jakobsen 1928); ramasg ‘a type of seaweed’ (Cameron 1883, 108: applied to various species of Fuci; HSS: Fucus palmatus; Dwelly: Halidrys siliquosa; Clyne 1989, 123: Laminaria digitata), derived by Cameron from SG ràmh ‘branch, oar’, but cf. Scots rammocks, pl. of rammock ‘a big rough piece of wood, a gnarled knotty stick’, diminutive of ramm(el) ‘a small or crooked branch of a tree’; and trulasg ‘awry’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Lewis), cf. triollasg (AFB˄: ‘awry, wrong; astray’, Lewis) and triullainn ‘wrong, confused’ (MacLennan 1925), cf. Scots troilya, trujlla, trullia ‘bewitched’.
SG truaill and Ir. truailligh ‘to corrupt’ are unconnected (see Vendryes 1996, s.v. trúailniḋ).
2. SG grunn- etc.
An alternative development, substituting the first syllable of the word with SG grunn- in the sense ‘grounds, lees, dregs’,
Cf. grunnasg ‘dregs’ (HSS 1828; Watson 2022, 219: Easter Ross); grunndas ‘idem’ (Dieckhoff 1932: Glengarry), var. grullasg, grulasg ‘crumbs, fragments, broken bits’ (AFB˄; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄). For SG grunn ‘handful, lot, crowd’, cf. EG grinne ‘faggot, bundle; crowd, company, troop of soldiers’, Bret. gronn ‘heap[, pack, cluster, band]’ (MacBain 1911). Grunnasg in the sense ‘groundsel’ is derived by Clyne (1989, 18–19) from SG grunnd ‘ground’ but is probably a loan-shift from Eng. groundsel or Scots grundiswallow, gruniswall ‘groundsel’, conforming with grunnasg ‘dregs’.
again with reference to sulphur in its powdered form, is found in the east, north and west of the Scottish mainland down to Dornie; forms with post-stress m may reflect the bilabial nasal of the original etymon: (Helmsdale) grunnstal (Dwelly); (Reay Co.) grunnastan (ibid.; Grannd 2013, s.v. sulphur); (Gairloch) grunnastal (Dwelly; Wentworth 2003, s.v. sulphur), grumastal (Wentworth); (Torridon) grumastal (Dwelly); (Dornie) grunasdal (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄). Other equivalent forms are also cited in some early dictionaries, e.g. gronustal (Armstrong); grunnasdal, grunnasdan (HSS).
For ‘sulphur’, Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄ also records riof in Strathglass and riofa in Skye; cf. riof (Munro 1843, 6: riofa, 200: riof, gen. riofa, so MacBain 1911: riofa), riubh (HSS 1828
Attributed to O’Reilly 1864 (1817), who also gives ruibh.
; Shaw 1780), ruibh (Shaw), raibh (Kirk 1702), < EG sraiḃ (eDIL˄; O’Rahilly 1942c, 184–88: 85; McManus 1988, 159–60).