ONlwSG

rotach in the sense ‘storm’ is derived by Mackay (1897, 95: Sutherland) from Ice. rota [sic] ‘storm’; cf. Henderson’s (1910, 147) rotach ‘a spell of stormy weather’ from Norse rōta ‘storm and sleet’, Mackenzie’s (1910, 385) rotach ‘rough weather’ from Norse rota [sic] ‘storm’, and MacBain’s (1911) rotach ‘rough weather’ from Norse róta ‘storm’. McDonald (2009, 396) considers a loan from ON róta ‘storm and sleet’ likely. Mackay’s and Mackenzie’s rota (both writers frequently omit lengthmarks), Henderson’s rōta and MacBain’s róta all represent Cleasby’s (1874) Ice. róta f. ‘sleet and storm’. Cleasby’s róta, however, appears to be a conflation of OIce. rota f. ‘heavy rain’, with a short vowel (Zoëga 1910; cf. ON rota ‘rain, wet weather’ (NO)), and Róta ‘the name of a goddess who sends storm and rain’ (Cleasby), with a long vowel. De Vries (1962), on the other hand, suggests the name Róta may have the sense ‘causer of confusion’ and be associated with ON róta ‘to stir up etc.’

A number of Gaelic forms, including rotach, are discussed below (A–E).

A. SG rot m. 

HSS (1828), MacEachen (1842), Dwelly (1911), MacLennan (1911) and AFB^˄.

[ɍɔʰt̪], gen. roit [ɍɔʰtʲ]
The following senses occur:
(i) ‘a bursting as of waves’ (HSS 1828; MacBain 1911; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925);
(ii) ‘anger’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: tha rot air [‘he is angry’], Harris);
(iii) ‘a hunk, lump’ (≈Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: rot balaich ‘a big boy’: tha e an dèidh rot a dhèanamh ‘he has grown up to be a big boy’, Wester Ross); ‘anything sizeable’ (ibid.: rot maide [‘a thick stick’], Strathglass, rot muilt [‘a sizeable wether’], Gairloch); ‘a thick object’ (AFB^˄: rot m., roit fem.);
(iv) ‘a belch’ (MacEachen 1842; MacBain 1911; MacLennan 1925); ‘a belch, or belching’ (HSS 1828; Dwelly 1911); ‘a fart’ (MacEachen 1842); ‘a loud fart’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Tiree); ‘belching; loud fart, ripper’ (AFB^˄).

SG rot is unlikely to derive from either ON róta ‘to stir up’ or rota ‘rain, wet weather’ (see above), firstly because ON ó would be expected to yield a long vowel in Gaelic, and secondly because post-stress ON -t would be expected to yield -d /d/ [d̪̥] in Gaelic, cf. ON grjót > SG greòd, q.v. MacBain (1911) takes SG rot in the sense ‘belch’ to be from Fr. rot (ultimately from Lat. ructus (DELF)), but this seems unnecessary in the light of the fact that SG rot most likely represents a conflation of Scots rowt [rut] ‘the lowing or bellowing of cattle; a shout, outcry, uproar, clamour, to-do; a loud crashing noise, a peal, a report’ (SND^˄ 

Cf. Scots rowt vb ‘(of cattle) to low loudly, to bellow, to roar, (of other animals) to roar, to cry; (of persons) to shout, bawl, make a great noise; to play on a horn, to toot; (of a horn) to sound loudly; to break wind; (of wind, water etc.) to roar loudly; (of a bell) to toll, to make a loud din’ (ibid.), from ON rauta ‘to bellow’.

) and Scots rout [rut] ‘a violent movement, a heavy blow, a stroke’ (SND^˄ 

Cf. Scots rout vb ‘to beat, strike, assail with blows’, from OEng. hrūtan ‘to rush, dash, move with violence’.

), with u ~ o alternation in Gaelic (cf. Eng. turf > SG toirp, q.v.).

Derivatives: cf. SG rot ‘to drive away’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Skye) ?and rotair ‘to shove a person into a run’ (MacLennan 1925); also the verbal nouns rot ‘driving, chasing, as of cattle in the corn or preserved pasture’ (Dwelly 1911), rotadh (≈Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v. rot: tha thìd agad am balach sin a rotadh dhachaigh [‘it’s time you sent that boy home’], Lewis, and s.v. rotadh: chaidh a rotadh a-mach às an taigh [‘he was forced out of the house’], Scalpay) and rotachadh ‘chasing’ (ibid.: Scalpay).

B. SG rod m. [ɍɔd̪̥], gen. roid [ɍɔd̥ʲ]
For Bernera (Lewis), MacLeod (2004, 128) gives rod in the sense ‘northerly gale’ and synonymously with rotach (D 1, below). He provides (p. 88) a list of gales named according to the time of year in which they occur: Rod na Càisg ‘the Easter Northerly Gale’ (beginning of April); Rod na Bealltainn ‘the 1st of May Northerly Gale’ (May Day); Rod na Caingis ‘the 15th of May Northerly Gale’ (Whitsuntide); Rod an Lùnastail ‘the 1st of August Northerly Gale’ (Lammas); Rod na Samhna ‘the 1st of November Northerly Gale’ (All Hallows); and Rod Fèill Mhàrtainn ‘the 11th of November Northerly Gale’ (Martinmas); cf. similar names with rotach (D 1, below). MacLeod adds that these gales ‘usually last about three days’, hence the proverb rod nan trì tràthan ‘the gale of the three mornings’.

SG rod is conceivably an alternative reflex (besides rot (A), above) of Scots rowt [rut] ‘(of wind, water etc.) to roar loudly’ etc., 

Cf. MScots bot(t) > SG baoit ~ baoid etc. ‘bait’ (s.v. boiteag); Scots whitin > SG cuiteag ~ cuideag etc. ‘whiting’ (s.v. cuidhteag); and Scots outroad, ootroad > SG udrathad ~ utraid etc. ‘by-road’ (s.v. udrathad).

or it may be a variant of rot under the influence of SG ròd (C) and/or roid. For SG roid (also ruid), Dwelly (1911) gives ‘1. short race, bounce, race before a leap; 2. gale; 3. force produced by motion’. Dwelly’s first and last senses are mirrored in Shaw (1780), Armstrong (1825), HSS (1828), MacBain (1896; 1911), MacLennan 1925 (who also notes the extended sense ‘little while or time’) and Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄. Dwelly’s sense ‘gale’ is noted in Armstrong (citing Shaw), and HSS (citing O’Reilly 

O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary lists separately róid ‘gale’, róid ‘momentum, force’ and róid ‘a race’, apparently poorly adapted from Shaw’s and MacFarlane’s Scottish Gaelic dictionaries.

), for which we can perhaps compare the senses ‘surge, wave’ recorded for Skye (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v. ruid). MacLennan derives SG roid from EG roitte, past participle of roithiḋ, ruithiḋ ‘to set in motion, makes run, drives’ etc. (eDIL^˄), but this would be expected to yield SG *roit *[ɍɔʰtʲ]. EG roit, ruit ‘?throw, cast (?path, way)’ (eDIL^˄), on the other hand, would be expected to yield SG roid, ruid regularly.

AFB^˄’s editor Michael Bauer (pers. comm.) explains that AFB^˄ gives roit /Rɔhdʲ/ for roid on the assumption that roid (AFB’s roit) and rot (A) have the same source, probably EG rot adj. ‘strong, impetuous, spirited’ or similar (eDIL^˄). However, EG rot would be expected to yield SG *rod *[ɍɔd̪̥]. (Note that the lists of senses given for SG rot (A), roid (AFB’s roit) and rotach (D 1) in AFB are identical.)

C. SG ròd m. [ɍɔːd̪̥], gen. ròid [ɍɔːd̥ʲ]
The following senses occur:
(i) ‘seaweed’ (MacFarlane 1815; Armstrong 1825: rod [sic]; M^cAlpine 1832: rod [rôd]); ‘quantity of seaware cast on the shore’ (HSS 1828; MacBain 1911; Dwelly 1911; AFB^˄); ‘seaweeds cast on shore’ (MacEachen 1842); ‘seaweed, seaweed cast ashore’ (MacLennan 1925);
(ii) ‘cast, shot’ (Armstrong 1825: rod [sic]; Dwelly 1911; AFB^˄);
(iii) ‘foaming sea beating against the shore’ (HSS 1828; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; AFB^˄);
(iv) ‘foam’ (M^cAlpine 1832: rod [rôd]; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; AFB^˄).

SG ròd may be a reflex of Scots rowt, as [rʌut] rather than as [rut], or from EG (disyllabic) roüt ‘throw, cast’, which yields Ir. (monosyllabic) ród (O’Clery 1643: ‘cast’; O’Reilly 1817: ‘a shot, cast, throw’ and, listed separately, ‘seaweed’ 

Contrast Dinneen 1947: rod [sic] ‘a variety of seaweed thrown up on the sand’, but which may be connected with Ir. raideog ‘fling, kick; cast, throw’ and rad ‘to throw, cast, fling’, an extended sense of Ir. rad ‘to give, bestow’ (Ó Dónaill 1977; cf. Early Modern Irish radaiḋ (eDIL^˄)).

).

D. SG rotach f./m. 

Cited as feminine by HSS (1828), MacEachen (1842), Dwelly (1911), Dieckhoff (1932) and AFB^˄, but as masculine by M^cAlpine (1832) and MacLennan (1925).

[ˈɍɔʰt̪əx], -[ax], -[ɔx], gen. rotaich [ˈɍɔʰt̪iç]
D 1. SG rotach involving ‘a loud noise’ and/or ‘violent motion’ has the following senses:
(i) ‘a wild storm with raging sea, synchronising with flood tide’ (MacLennan 1925); ‘a spell of severe weather with heavy seas running’ (MacDonald 1946, 13: Lewis); ‘strong wind, gale (often specifically a three-day northerly gale)’ (AFB^˄); ‘rough weather’ (MacBain 1911 

MacBain also gives ‘rótach [sic]? (Lewis)’, but the Lewis form is otherwise rotach. Assuming the varying vowel length is authentic, cf. Scots blitek > SG bleideag ~ blèideag etc. ‘snowflake’ (s.v. bleideag); Scots whitin > SG cuiteag ~ cùiteag etc. ‘whiting’ (s.v. cuidhteag); and Scots outroad, ootroad > SG udrathad ~ ùdrathad etc. ‘by-road’ (s.v. udrathad).

); ‘storm’ (Dwelly 1911: Sutherland)’, and compare the expressions ’s iad a fhuair an rotach! [‘what a good following wind they got!’] (≈Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Lewis); tha rotach math gaoithe ann ‘there’s a good gale of wind’ (ibid., s.v. rothtach: Lewis); Rotach Bealltuinn ‘a strong ground swell which drove the seaweed ashore [at the start of May]’ (ibid., s.v. rotach: Lewis and Skye); Rotach na Caingis ‘a spell of bad weather [at Whitsun]’ (ibid.: Lewis); Rotach na Càisge [‘a spell of bad weather at Easter’] (Mackay 1897, 95: Rotach na caisge [sic]; Henderson 1910, 147);
(ii) (by extension) ‘a jaunt, short visit’ (AFB^˄);
(iii) ‘a belching; loud fart, ripper’ (AFB^˄);
(iv) ‘a hand rattle used for frightening cattle, from corn, or grass’ (HSS 1828; cf. Dwelly 1911); ‘a hand rattle to frighten cattle’ (MacBain 1911; cf. MacLennan 1925); ‘hand rattle (traditionally for driving cattle)’ (AFB^˄); ‘a hand rattle’ (M^cAlpine 1832; MacEachen 1842; Dieckhoff 1932: [RòhdɐK], a Strathglass word as pronounced by a Glengarry man);
(v) ‘a rush at starting, a running’ (HSS 1828; MacBain 1911); ‘a rush at starting’ (M^cAlpine 1832); ‘rush at, starting, running, bound’ (Dwelly 1911); ‘a spurt, a spring (at start)’ (MacLennan 1925); ‘rush’ (McDonald 1972, App. I, p. 266: South Uist and Eriskay; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: South Uist); ‘speed, momentum’ (ibid.: Skye); ‘short dash/sprint; run-up (in sports); momentum’ (AFB^˄);
(vi) ‘the flux’ (HSS 1828; Dwelly 1911);
(vii) ‘a hiding, thrashing’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Harris); ‘small fight, tiff, scuffle; hiding, thrashing’ (AFB^˄).

SG rotach is probably a conflation of Scots rowt (as [rut] rather than as [rʌut]) and rout [rut] (as above), with u ~ o alternation (as above), or SG rot (A) itself (similarly derived), + the nominally agentive suffix -ach, perhaps with collective force (Cox 2017, 122 §91 (i) (a)). HSS (1828) derives SG rotaiche ‘a bursting as of waves’ (with the nominally abstract noun suffix -aiche) from rotach, although a derivation from rot (A) also seems plausible.

D 2. SG rotach involving ‘dirt’ has the following senses:
‘A circle of filth on one’s clothes’ (M^cAlpine 1832: Islay; so also MacBain 1911); ‘circle of mud gathered by a female’s dress off a muddy road’ (Dwelly 1911); ‘a circle of filth on one’s clothes; bespattering’ (MacLennan 1925); ‘dirt on the ankles from walking, a circle of dirt round the foot of your clothes’ (LASID IV, p. 211: [Rɔ.təx], Kintyre); ‘mess of mud or spilled food on a person or animal’ (Grant 1987 I, 238: /ˈrɔhtɑx/, Islay 

Ibid.: nach oirre a bha an rotach (said of a dog which appeared covered in mud), and nach air a bha an rotach (said of a man who had spilled porridge over himself).

); ‘travel dirt/stains’ (AFB^˄).

Hence Scots rottach ‘idem’ (SND^˄).

Further, while Robertson (1899, 263) cites rotach in the sense ‘circle of mud gathered by one’s dress off muddy roads’ for the North End of Arran, he also lists the synonymous stroid for the South End (so also Dwelly 1911).

For rotach in the sense ‘dirt’, Robertson compares Shaw’s (1780) rodacht ‘a covering, fence’, tentatively suggesting a derivation from Scots rot (rat), Eng. rut. MacBain (1896; 1911), on the other hand, compares rotach with SG rotair ‘a sloven’, a word given by Dwelly (1911) as ròtair ‘a clumsy, awkward fellow; slaver; sloven; lazy fellow’. SG rotach and rotair ~ ròtair (despite the varying vowel length 

Cf. rotach ~ rótach ‍fn 9, above.

) are conceivably based on Scots rot ‘to decay’ + Gaelic suffixes; cf. Scots rotten ‘dirty, soiled, covered with stains, mud’ and rottack ‘any old discarded object in a decayed condition, a piece of rubbish’ (SND^˄). As for SG stroid, an original initial sr- would be expected to be retained in Arran Gaelic (rather than develop into str-, cf. SGDS, Items 796–798, 800, Points 31–35), although initial str- is found in loan-words, e.g. SG (Arran) strup ‘spout’ (Holmer 1957, 15.22) < Scots stroup ‘idem’ (SND^˄). However, the origin of stroid remains obscure.

D 3. SG rotach adj.
(i) rotach in the senses ‘[?]flatulent’ (MacEachen 1842, s.v. rot ‘fart’), ‘medium-sized, stumpy, lumpish’ (Dwelly 1911) and ‘thick, fat, lumpy’ (AFB^˄) appear to go back to SG rot (A) + the adjectival suffix -ach;
(ii) rotach in the senses ‘impetuous; rushing, dashing; stormy’ (AFB^˄) may go back to SG rot (A) + the adjectival suffix -ach, or consist of the noun rotach (D 1) with an adjectival function;
(iii) rotach in the senses ‘untidy’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Tiree); ‘dirty, untidy’ (ibid.: Islay); ‘untidy, dirty’ (AFB^˄) appears to consist of the noun rotach (D 2) with an adjectival function;
(iv) McDonald (≈1972) lists the adjective rotach in the sense ‘having phlegm in the throat’: tha a’ bhruidhinn aige cho rotach [his speech is so thick], but in this instance rotach may be a variant of rocach ‘hoarse, phlegmatic’ (a comparison drawn by McDonald’s editor John Lorne Campbell), itself a variant of SG ròcach ‘hoarse’ (s.v. ròcas).

E. SG rotal m. [ˈɍɔʰt̪əɫ̪], gen. rotail -[əl]
SG rotal occurs in the sense ‘wake of a ship under sail’ (HSS 1828); ‘a ship’s wake’ (MacBain 1911); ‘wake of a ship’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: North Uist); cf. the open compound rotal-bàta ‘boat-wake’ (MacLeod 2004, 122).

MacBain suggests SG rotal is from a conflation of Eng. rut and route. A derivation from Scots (Shetland) rutl, rotl [rotəl] etc. ‘noise, rumbling; boiling up; small waterfall; heap of small stones’, as a verb ‘to rumble, crash; boil up, seeth, bubble; mutter’, which Jakobsen (1928) compares with Norw. rutla ‘to rattle, make a noise on shifting anything, boom’, seems plausible.

In summary, SG rot ‘bursting of waves etc.’ (A) may be a conflation of Scots rowt [rut] ‘a roar etc.’ and rout [rut] ‘a heavy blow etc.’; SG rod ‘gale etc.’ (B) may go back to Scots rowt [rut], or be a variant of SG rot (A) under the influence of SG roid ‘leap, momentum etc.’ and/or ròd (C); SG ròd ‘seaweed, cast, foaming sea etc.’ (C) may go back to Scots rowt [rʌut] or EG roüt ‘cast’; SG rotach in the sense ‘storm etc.’ (D 1) may be a conflation of Scots rowt [rut] and rout [rut] + SG -ach; rotach in the sense ‘dirt’ (D 2) may go back ultimately to Scots rot ‘to decay’; and rotach as an adjective in the sense ‘hoarse’ (D 3(iv)) may be a variant of SG rocach (ròcach) ‘idem’; finally, SG rotal ‘a boat’s wake’ (E) may go back to Scots rutl, rotl ‘rumbling, seething’.