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Published 01/10/24
starrag f. [ˈs̪t̪ɑɍaɡ̊],
Cf. /sdaRag/ (AFB˄). The word is recorded as stearrag, with a palatalised initial cluster, in a short list of bird names drawn up by a nine-year-old informant from Scalpay (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄, q.v.), but this is probably for starrag – the list contains several spelling errors – and may have been influenced by SG steàrnag ‘tern’.
gen. starraig -[æɡ̊ʲ], -[ɛɡ̊ʲ], ‘hooded crow, Corvus cornix’. Although also found slightly further afield, this word is broadly limited to Lewis and Harris.
Fergusson 1886, 46: Harris; so Forbes 1905, 37, and Dwelly 1911; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Lewis, North Uist; AFB˄: Lewis, Harris, Scalpay, Tiree.
Comparing the sense ‘wry-neck, stiff-neck’ (MacLennan 1925
Who compares MHGerm. starren ‘to become fixed’ and Germ. starr ‘stiff, stiff-necked’.
), Cox (1987 II, 102) derives starrag from ON starr adj. ‘hard, obstinate, stiff’ or starri m. (cf. NN starre 'hardhead, stubborn person') + the Gaelic suffix -ag (so also Cox 2002a, 248; 1991, 493; 1992, 138); McDonald (2009, 415; 2015, 219–30
Although citing ON star (leg. stari), starri m. ‘starling’.
) considers the loan likely.
A semantically more suitable solution might be a loan-blend from Scots sture, stare etc. [stu:r], [stø:r], [ste:r], [sti:r] in the sense ‘(of the voice) deep and hoarse, harsh, rough’ (SND˄, < ON stórr ‘big’), with reference to the bird’s grating caw. While the Scots word usually has a long vowel, it is recorded as [stur] with a short vowel in Orkney (Marwick 1929, s.v. stoor adj., and p. xli
Cf. Scots (Orkney) sooken [´sukən] < ON sókn f. ‘district’ (ibid.)
). Alternation of u ~ a in Gaelic is unusual, however.
One might also compare SG stàrr vb ‘to shove, dash’, the verbal noun starradh m., and the compounds cnap-starra(idh) ‘obstruction’ and stàrr-fhiacail(l) ‘tusk, protruding tooth’, also starrag ‘protruding tooth, obstruction’; cf. Ir. starr f. ‘prominence, projection; tusk; stumble’ (Ó Dónaill 1977; var. storr (Dinneen 1947)) and the derivatives starraic, starraicín, starrán, starróg, starrfhiacail and, in place-names, storral (cf. Joyce 1913 II, 38–39; Tempan 2010–20˄, s.nn. Barrclashcame North-West Top, Mullaghasturrakeen, Slievenalecka, Sturrakeen, The Sturrall). While Joyce refers to a root stur (based on anglicised forms of place-names), Tempan (ibid., s.v. The Sturrall; 2007˄) takes Ir. starr, storr to be from Ir. tor ‘pinnacle, rock-tower’ (EG tor ‘tower, fortified building’, < Lat. turris (eDIL˄)), with prothetic s-,
For examples of prothetic s- in Irish, see Ó Curnáin 2007 I, 258.
although this does not account for the final -/ʀ/ of starr. He also compares the (English) place-name forms The Storr NN495540 and The Old Man of Storr NN500539 in Skye, along with the appellative SG tòrr
SG tòrr, rather than *tor, may be the result of conflation with SG tàrr ‘belly, stomach etc.’ (EG tarr).
in the sense ‘projection’, although Drummond (1992, 89) derives Eng. Storr from ON stórr ‘big’, assuming an earlier name form incorporating a noun to have been truncated. However, Cox (2010b, 71 + fn 24) takes the Scottish Gaelic name form Bod Stòirr ‘the penis of Stòrr’, which has been sanitised as SG Bodach Stòirr ‘the old man of Stòrr’ (now Bodach an Stòirr ‘the old man of An Stòrr’, with the article), under the influence of the English name form The Old Man of Storr, to contain a loan-name from ON *Staurr nom. m. ‘[the] stake’, comparing the Assynt name SG Stòr
Now SG An Stòr (Taylor 2011, s.v. Stoer).
(Eng. Stoer), from ON *Staur acc. m. ‘[the] stake’ (cf. ON fyrir Stauri ‘off [the] Staurr’ in Hrafns saga (Vigfussen 1878, 290)). The alias Am Fiacaill Stòrach ‘the buck tooth’ (Drummond ibid.) tends to support a non-Gaelic origin: an Early Gaelic *starr (with a short stressed vowel) would be expected to yield SG stàrr (with a long stressed vowel) in more northerly dialects, while derivative forms such as SG starrach ‘bony’, starrag and starran ‘causeway, stepping stones’ retain the short stressed vowel of the base *starr, as expected; SG stòrach, however, with its long stressed vowel, suggests a base stòr, rather than *stor. Alternatively, Ir. starr and SG stàrr might just represent a by-form of EG sparr ‘spar, beam, rafter; stake, spike, nail; gate of a town or city, fortification’ (eDIL˄), perhaps under the influence of EG tor (cf. the derivative EG sparraḋ m. ‘fastening, nailing’), but, apart from HSS (1828) noting that SG stàrr vb means the same as SG spàrr vb, i.e. ‘to drive, as a nail or wedge; induce by force; fix, nail; thrust; inculcate’ (s.v. spàrr), there is no evidence for such a development.
In summary, the etymology of SG starrag is uncertain: it might be a loan-blend from ON starr adj. (or starri m.) or Scots sture, stare, or it might be a derivative of SG *stàrr, a by-form of EG s-tor or, doubtfully, EG sparr; or it might be from one source but have been influenced by another.