Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1975, Page 15

Faroese Bird-Name Origins
23
Accordingly, in FBN, 11, we đescribed the apparently myster-
ious eskir as a plural. ít will, however, be after all a singular,
in fact none other than the proper name Eskir, now so easily
accessible in Svabo, Dict., I, 163: »Eskjir [nomen viri]« and
said to reflect Dan. Eskild, though this is questioned by Chr.
Matras (Dict., II, 18).
Personal appellatives are not common constituents of Faroese
bird names. Among primary terms there is solely (the very anci-
ent) óðinshani ‘redwing’, unless one wished to count also erla
(kongsdóttir) ‘white wagtail’. In other cases, we know of two,
the terms are definitely noa words: nornagestur or gestur
‘oyster-catcher’ and sigga ‘crow’. To these could perhaps be
added the appellatives prestur ‘puffin’ lit. ‘priest’ and prinsur
‘shag in its second year’ lit. ‘prince’, the former certainly a
noa term (Fróðskaparrit, XIII, 52), the latter possibly so (FBN,
64). The same possibility clearly holds good for eskir. The
eider duck and drake have quite distinct names in Faroese.
We have already been given a noa word for the duck æða,
namely rusk lit. ‘rubbish’ (Fróðskaparrit, XVI, 107 f.); it rather
looks as though eskir was a corresponding term for her mate
blikur.
Gestur ‘shearwater’
Gestur is a well-known noa name for the oyster-catcher,
as duly reported in FBN, 62. Unfortunately, we overlooked
another meaning recorded by Chr. Matras, Stednavne paa de
Færøske Norðuroyar, 117, as follows: »gestur m. ‘Gæst’. Op-
tegnet i Navnet paa en Skraapes Hule (lírhola) Kunoy: Gest-
hola.« The tone of this epithet will doubtless have been
thoroughly positive, referring presumably to the corpulent
nestling (líri) rather than the gastronomically inferior adult
(skrápur). One is disposed to regard this semantic shift as
having been only very local.
Gestur, Nornagestur ‘oyster-catcher’
One would like to know what has motivated these high-