Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 93

Gaelic taom — a Norse loan?
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has shown itself stronger than in most other Gaelic-speaking
areas. The morpheme taom may conceivably have been in-
fluenced in form by the already existing non-Norse stems
taom (b) and taom (d), but it is not necessary to assume this:
as shown above, taom may very well have developed from the
Middle Gaelic rendition of O.N. tøm- quite independently.
(d) Ir. and Sc.G. taom ‘jet, gush, torrent’ is somewhat
difficult to place. Its semantic affinity to liquids might tempt
us to associate it with the Norse word; its element of sudden-
ness or violence rather suggests an affinity with taom (b).
I prefer the latter possibility, but taom (d) may very well be
a sort of connecting link between b and c, as its meaning
combines the semantic elements of suddenness and liquidity.
This may be the main reason why all lexicographers regard
taom as one word stem rather than as a set of homonyms.
(e) Middle and Early Modern Irish also had taem, taom in
the meaning ‘sinful action, sin’. This might perhaps be con-
nected with taom (b): ‘an action performed recklessly, as in
a fit of passion’. At any rate there is no connection with the
Norse word here.
All this, of course, may and should be condensed. It is
obvious that the element taom does not constitute five separate
homonyms. Taom (a), Sc.G. teum, may safely be put aside
as a morpheme of its own, connected etymologically with
Brythonic tam-. I think that (b), (c), (d) and (e) might con-
veniently be grouped as follows:
taom- (1) ‘jet, gush, torrent; fit (as of emotion, etc.); (obs.)
sinful action (as the result of a fit of emotion), sin.’ [The
etymology of this morpheme falls outside the scope of the
present paper, as it is non-Norse and pre-Norse in Gaelic.]
taom- (2) ‘emptying, baling, pumping; pouring’. From O.N.
tøma ‘to empty’, derived from the adjectival stem tám-
‘empty’.