Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1976, Page 65

Faroese Bird-Name Origins (VI)
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bárufjatla, and we remember that fjatla is also known as an
independent noa name for ‘crow’ (FBN, 61, 69). Though we
are not aware of any Faroese evidence, it is probable that the
name of the little auk, too, was involved in the taboos to
which the names of so many seabirds have been subjected.
This would be grounds enough for the borrowing of Norw.
baarafjært in the first place.
Gorfuglur
As is well known, gorfuglur ‘great auk’ goes back to syno-
nymous ON geirfugl (FBN, 52), but etymologists are not agreed
as to how the name is to be explained. In the Zeitschrift ftir
Anglistik und Amerikanistik, xvii, 258—62, we recall that
geirfugl also has the meaning ‘gerfalcon’ and argue that the
sense ‘great auk’ arose in the colonies in the west as a humo-
rous noa name. The name was in use in Shetland and Orkney,
and although not actually recorded in Norn, is seen as a loan
in Sc. Eng. gair-, garefowl (forthcoming Neuphil. Mitteil-
ungen).
The term also passed into Scottish Gaelic, St Kilda being the
last refuge of the bird in the British Isles. Here the Norse name
appears as gearrbhall (A. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, iv,
110) showing assimilation to gearr after the harsh cry, and
ball ‘spot’, an allusion to the white spot in front of the eye;
the onomatopoeic element gearr appears as an independent
bird name in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic, denoting a variety
of species, see Dinneen, Dwelly (Zeitschrift ftir celtische Philo-
logie, xxxiv, 158).
Hyplingur
In Frócj., xiii, 47—50, we showed that hyplingur rather than
hiplingur is the etymologically correct spelling of the cormo-
rant’s Faroese name; it goes back to ON '•'hypplingr, certainly
of Viking age, witness Manx huplin, and is a derivative of