v1.0
Published 01/10/24
punnan m. *[ˈpʰũᵰ̪an], gen. punnain *-[æɲ], *-[ɛɲ], ‘sheaf, bundle (of straw or hay)’ is derived by Cameron (in MacBain 1894a, 639) from its ‘primary meaning “load” seemingly from Lat. pondus’. However, MacBain (1896, 1911) takes EG pundand, punann,
So also Stokes (1892, 123); Bugge (1912, 303); Marstrander (1915a, 81, 96, 119); de Vries (1962, 65); Schulze-Thulin (1996, 104); Kelly (2000, 238: punnann); McDonald (2009, 347).
Ir. punann,
Sommerfelt (1949, 235); Greene (1976, 79; 1978, 121); Mac Mathúna (2001, 77); McDonald (2009, 347).
Mx bunney
So also Marstrander (1932, 68, 285); McDonald (2009, 347).
and SG punnan
As in MacBain 1894a, 639. So also MacLennan (1925); Stewart (2004, 412); McDonald (2009, 347).
to be from ON bundin nt. ‘bundle, sheaf’.
Marstrander (1915a, 81) notes that EG pundand rather goes back to ON *bundan (in ablaut relation to bundin), cf. Norw. dial. bundan, OSw. bundan, and is datable to at least the first half of the 10th century (ibid., 156). ON *bundan, then, appears to yield EG pundand, with substitution of the native nominal ending -and, which in turn yields punnann via assimilation of the dental (assuming final -nd was not already purely orthographic), alternating with punann, the form surviving in modern Irish.
Pace Marstrander (ibid., 131), who writes ‘[I]r. pundan’.
However, Mx bunney [buˈnə] (Marstrander 1932, 68), [bọnə], [bo̤nə] (Broderick 1984 II, 50) appears to derive from a late ON *bunda, with loss of the final nasal, cf. Nn. bunde, Far. bundi (de Vries ibid.; Torp 1992, s.v. bundel). On this basis, SG punnan might derive from either ON *bundan or *bunda, with substitution or addition, respectively, of the native suffix -an. On the other hand, there are grounds to believe that SG punnan may simply be a ghost word.
A number of Scottish Gaelic dictionaries list punnan: Shaw (1780: punan), Armstrong (1825), HSS (1828) and Dwelly 1911, and it is etymologised by Cameron, MacBain and MacLennan (as above). However, apart from a mention in a list of technical terms (Robertson 1907b, 112), it seems to occur only in the first Scottish Gaelic edition of the New Testament (An Tiomnadh Nuadh 1767, Mata 13:30), as dative plural (len.) phunnanuibh, glossed thrusaichibh, usage which closely follows Kirk (phunnannaibh) in his 1690 rendition of William O’ Donnell’s Irish translation of the New Testment (first published in 1602
The 1817 edition of Bedell and O’Donnell’s Irish Bible also reads phunnannaibh, q.v.
).
In a Scottish Gaelic text of unconventional orthography, Christiansen (1938, 5) notes the use of puind, which he translates as ‘straw’: agus e ri sniomh sioman caol le gibbag puind bho isgid [= agus e ri snìomh sìoman caol le giobag puinnd fo iosgaid ‘while he was making a thin rope from a bundle of ?couchgrass under his thigh’]. Although Christiansen (p. 20) also compares Dwelly’s punnan ‘sheaf’, he notes Scots (Orkney) punds 'stout, course grass’ (Marwick 1929, s.v.), and it seems probable that puind here is the genitive of SG punnd ‘coarse grass, couchgrass’, a loan from Scots pund (SND˄).
However, Kirk may have been aware that the word was new to his readership as he includes it in his glossary: punnan ‘a sheaf’ (EEBO-TCP: An Biobla Naomhtha). However, in the second Scottish Gaelic edition of the New Testament (An Tiomnadh Nuadh 1796), the word was changed to cheanglachanaibh, glossed thrusaichibh.
In their Irish dictionaries, Lhuyd (1707) cites punan ‘a sheaf of corn’ and ag ceangal punnann ‘binding sheaves’, O’Brien ([1768,] 1832) punnan and O’Reilly ([1817,] 1864) punán, punan.
On the grounds that it is probably a ghost word, then, SG punnan is not considered to have been borrowed from Old Norse.