Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1976, Page 64

72
Faroese Bird-Name Origins (VI)
(Clusius, 1605). The obloquious nature of the name cannot
fail to recall synonymous Icel. haftyrðill lit. ‘ocean turd’, also
known from a pula in the old language. And, to make a three-
some, we can quote Far. fulkobbi, -kubbi, now recognised as
meaning ‘stinking lump’. Thus, throughout our area, the names
of the little auk are uniformlý defamatory, a remarkable fact
which must have its justification in some ancient aspect of
seaman’s lore. We know that haftyrðill goes back to the Middle
Ages, and we have deduced as much for fulkobbi. The same
must apply to baarafjært, -fis, for the second element lit. ‘fart’,
not ‘farter’ as in more modern terminology, is a sure sign of
an ancient formation (Fróð., xvi, 102 f., xix, 129 ff.).
Icel. haftyrðill ‘little auk’ has a formal correspondence in
Far, havtyrðil ‘stormy petrel’. We have shown in our previous
contri'oution that the Faroese sense is secondary, at the same
time noting that no (original) petrel name is our area is known
to bear a pejorative connotation. Now that the etymology of
Norw. baarafjært is satisfactorily explained, there can be no
doubt that the Faroese meaning ‘stormy petrel’ is secondary.
Recognition of this fact also helps us to understand better the
Suðuroy term bárufjatla. It will not be an entirely independent
creation, but rather a further development of a form as, e. g.
bárufjarta above. That is to say, the original meaning of the
word ‘little auk’ changed to ‘stormy petrel’ and then the ob-
scure -fjarta was altered to -fjatla lit. ‘hopper’ in order to give
the name a tangible meaning, i. e. ‘wave hopper’. In the con-
tribution referred to, we explained that the reported meaning
of bárufjatla, namely ‘Sclavonian grebe’, could not be original,
but must have previously been ‘stormy petrel’. The new facts
now available naturally confirm this identification.
The background to the semantic shift from ‘little auk’ to
‘stormy petrel’ will have been the same in the case of Far.
bavtyrðil, the name of the lesser known arctic bird being trans-
ferred to the more familiar petrel in the service of name taboo.
Indeed, the Fugloy names are expressly stated to have been
usual in sjómál. The same doubtless once applied to Suðuroy