ONlwSG

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stràcair m. [ˈs̪t̪ɾaːʰkəɾʲ], gen. idem, in the sense ‘troublesome fellow, wanderer’ is derived by Alexander Cameron (in MacBain 1894a, 645: stracair [sic]) from ON strákr m. ‘a vagabond, vagrant’ (NO); so also MacBain (1896 and 1911: stràcair ‘troublesome fellow, gossip, wanderer’), Henderson (1910, 213: stràcaire ‘idem’ 

So also de Vries 1962.

), MacLennan (1925: stràcair ‘idem’ 

So also Grant (2003, 43), after Henderson and MacLennan; so also Stewart (2004, 415), after MacLennan, although Stewart translates ON strákr as ‘insult’ in error.

) and McDonald (2009, 417: stràcair). Henderson’s form is otherwise unattested, and may have been so spelt on the analogy of nouns with the agentive suffix -aire, e.g. ceapaire, q.v.; the form stràchdair is occasionally found also (e.g. Armstrong 1825).

Nominally, stràcair has medial [ʰk], while stràchdair has medial [xk], i.e. with a greater degree of preaspiration.

^,

McDonald confuses SG stràcair, with a long stressed vowel, with SG sracair, sracaire ‘tearer, render; extortioner; champion’, with a short stressed vowel (cf. Ir. sracaire ‘idem’ (cf. Ó Dónaill 1977)).

ON strákr, given vowel epenthesis before the Old Norse nominative singular ending -r, either in Gaelic or, assuming a relatively late borrowing, in Old Norse or Old West Norn itself, would formally be expected to yield SG *stràgair *[ˈs̪t̪ɾaːɡ̊əɾʲ] rather than stràcair [ˈs̪t̪ɾaːʰkəɾʲ], and it seems more probable that stràcair is a Gaelic derivative of SG stràc, itself from EScot strak(e) *[straːk], MScots strak(e) *[streːk], modern Scots straik [strek] (Buchan, also †[str(j)ɑ:k]) (DOST^˄, n^1–3; 

Note that DOST derives strak(e) n² from strek(e) vb ‘to stretch’ rather than from strak(e) vb ‘to stroke’, which seems difficult to justify phonologically. Here, DOST is following OED’s rather tentative etymology for strake n¹ – the letter S in DOST was done in a great hurry, at a time when funding was running out. SND takes the three DOST items together. (Pers. comm. Caroline Macafee)

SND^˄, n), of which the following senses appear to have been borrowed into Gaelic: 

Scots senses are taken from SND^˄; Gaelic senses from Dwelly 1911, unless otherwise stated.

1. Scots ‘a blow, stroke, of a whip, rod, weapon, tool etc.’ →
(a) SG ‘a blow, thrust or stroke; a stroke of the scythe, strike or strickle’, also ‘thrash’ (cf. the Scots sense ‘a scutcher (thresher) for flax’); ‘a stroke of the teacher’s belt’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: stràc [st̪ɾɑ:xk], North Uist; stràchd, Scalpay);
(b) ?by extension, ‘a (loud) crashing sound; a copious eruption’; cf. the derivative stràcanach ‘proud, 

?With the sense ‘proud’ through conflation with SG stràiceil, stròiceil.

noisy’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Skye);

2. Scots ‘a narrow strip of land’ →
(a) SG ‘a swathe of corn or hay’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Skye, North Uist);
(b) ?by extension, ‘a swathe or band for tying hay’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v. strachd, but spelt stràchd on the slip);

3. Scots ‘a strickle, a sanded board or the like (now generally a piece of carborundum), for sharpening sickle- and scythe-blades’ →
SG ‘a mower's whetstone; strickle’; ‘a sharpening stone or strap’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v. strac, but spelt stràc on the slip);

4. Scots ‘a stroke, score or mark made by a pen, pencil’ →
SG ‘an accent (lengthmark)’; also ‘the mark of the high-tide’ (≈Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: (East Sutherland) [strɑ:k/strɑ:x mur/ə vur tɔ̃:n] [sic, for tɔ̃:n, leg. ɫɔ̃:n], 

I.e. stràc muir-làn/a’ mhuir-làn ‘the mark of (the) high-tide’.

used both of the literal high-tide mark on the seashore, and also humorously of the mark on a boy’s neck where he stopped washing; usually [strɑ:k], younger speakers varying to [strɑ:x]);

5. Scots ‘a stripe of colour, a streak, a ray of light etc.’ →
SG ‘a stripe’;

6. Scots ‘a small amount, a little, the least bit’ →
SG ‘a bit’ (≈Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v. stràchd: cha d’ fhuair mi air adhart stràchd [‘I didn’t progress a bit’], Scalpay);

7. Scots ‘a rounded stick with one straight edge used for levelling a commodity, usually corn, in a measured container so as to brush off any superfluous amount and leave the surface level with the top of the measure; the amount so brushed off; the measured container itself’ →
SG ‘a ruler to measure grain, meal or salt in a vessel, by drawing it along the brim; the fill of any vessel; a quantity: stràc math shneachdaidh “a heavy fall of snow.” ’; cf. the derivative stràcadh [st̪ɾɑ:kəɣ] ‘a vessel like a small tub used as a measure for grain’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Lewis);

8. Scots †‘a strake or plank of a boat’ (cf. MScots strak(e), straik(e) ‘a length of the planking along the side of a vessel’ (DOST^˄)) →
SG ‘a plank in a boat’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Islay);

9. Scots ‘a journey, jaunt, a long walk or excursion on foot’ (cf. straik ‘to go for a jaunt, proceed in a leisurely casual way’) →
(a) SG stràcan, with the nominally diminutive suffix -an, ‘tour, excursion’ (Nic-a-Phearsoin 1891, 20: stràchdan, Skye, but which is cited as stràcan in Robertson 1902, 88, and edited as stràcan in Meek 1998, 40); cf. stracan ‘tour’, without lengthmark (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Strathglass); cf. stràicean (b);
(b) SG stràcair, with the agentive suffix -air, 

The nature and origin of the suffix is problematic. For -[əɾʲ] in peripheral dialects, perhaps the result of confusion between the agentive suffixes -air -[aɾʲ] and -aire -[əɾʲə], see Ó Maolalaigh 2013, 210–13; cf. duil fhear (*duilear), ealbhar and slabhcar.

‘troublesome fellow, gossip, wanderer’, as above; cf. stracair ‘tourist, hiker’, without lengthmark (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Strathglass). The word is also recorded for Argyllshire as the name of a game: MacLagan (≈1901, 17–19) explains that ‘[s]tracair [leg. stràcair] is another bat game. It is played by opposing sides, and the necessary tools are a bat, an straicean [leg. an stràicean], and a ball, ball-speil. ... The name for the ball in this case has a peculiarly German sound, but it is no doubt to be explained by the [Gaelic] word spaoil ‘to wrap up, swathe’, and to be found in the English word spool ..., the ball being made of wool, damped and firmly wrapped round a hard centre’. However, MacLagan’s ball-speil is otherwise Scots ba’ spel’, ba’-spiel ‘a game of ball’ (SND^˄, s.v. spiel, 3: ‘a single game (of handball etc.), a “spell” at the ball’).

MacLagan’s form stracair and his definition of ball-speil as ‘ball’ are reiterated in a description of sports and pastimes in both English^˄ and Gaelic^˄ versions of The Open University’s OpenLearn module ‘Gaelic in Modern Scotland’.

Dwelly’s (1911, s.v. bleidir) urram a’ bhleidire do’n stràcair ‘the sneak's deference to the swaggerer’ goes back to Nicolson (1881, 378), but the latter has reinterpreted Macintosh’s (≈1785, 66) urram a[’] bhleidir do’n stràcair ‘the compliments of the impertinent to the troublesome’, which is ‘[s]aid of those who scold to such a degree as not to give each other due respect’.

The sense of the proverb is further altered, though presumably unintentionally, to ‘the sneak’s difference to the swaggerer’ in MacDonald 1926, 64.307. The senses ‘batter, batsman; brag, swaggerer’ given under AFB^˄’s stràcair /sdraːxgɛrʲ/ are based on MacLagan (ibid.) and Dwelly (ibid.), respectively (pers. comm. AFB’s editor Michael Bauer).