Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1975, Blaðsíða 14

Faroese Bird-Name Origins
(V)
W. B. Lockwood.
Bakur ‘greater black-backed gull’
The present name, aphetic for synonymous svartbakur (ON
svartbakr) lit. ‘black back’ poses no formal problems, while
the cognate Norn (Shetland baki, Orkney baakie) shows that
the term is ancient, enabling us to postulate local ON *bakr,
as in The Faroese Bird Names, 45.
Perhaps this short form was, however, more widespread
than the surviving Scandinavian records tell us, being in fact
Common West Norse. We suggest that it lies behind Irish
droimneacb ‘black-backed gull’, cf. droim ‘back’, semantically
difficult as it stands, but very plausible as a rendering of ON
'’-bakr see Zeitschrift f. celt Philologie, xxxiv, 10.
It will be appropriate, too, to consider the motivation. ON
svartbakr as a designation for the greater black-backed gull
is seen from its vagueness to have originally been a noa word,
for such a term would be equally applicable to the lesser black-
backed, and indeed to various other seabirds with contrasting
plumage. We shall not be far wrong if we see in ON *bakr
a further step in the direction of anonymity in the service of
name taboo.
Eskir ‘eider drake’
This term is known from Svabo, thus Indb., 13: »Eskjir,
saaledes kaldes de Eder-hanner, der ere hvide paa Brystet.«