Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1976, Page 71

Faroese Bird-Name Origins (VI)
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gannet’ (flekkur ‘spot’), synonymous with oyðisúla and grindu-
bøka ‘gannet in its second and third year’ where flekku- is
perhaps after the analogy of grindu- (FBN, 20), for the species
as such an obsolete súlugás lit. ‘gannet goose’, a not unexpected
tautology having an (independent) parallel in Eng. solan goose
(ZAA, xxi, 418 ff.). Then a collective seiðafuglur ‘birds, esp.
large gulls, feeding on seiður (small coalfish)’. Next, sildabøna
lit. ‘herring hen’, a name for the red-necked phalarope, main
name hálsareyði (FBN, 50), and velhvíti ‘stormy petrel’ lit.
‘tail white’, parallel to standard drunnhvíti (FBN, 66 f.).
The name villgás [vil-] ‘wild goose’ may be compared to
already recorded villdunna ‘wild duck’ (FBN, 12). Two
nicknames may now be mentioned: for the wren, vatn-
skalli substantially the same as vatnskøltur lit. ‘water skull’,
also váti skalli (under ‘Mortítlingur’ above), and similarly for
that other weather prophet the snipe, vætuskøltur (væta ‘rain’),
with which compare — in spirit — døggreyv lit. ‘dew back-
side’ (FBN, 16). The name uglubóndi, defined as ‘hanugle’,
seems a special case. The term is only known from the traditio-
nal Fuglakvæði (CCF, vi, 279), where it will be a nonce word,
reflecting the use of bóndi lit. ‘husbandman’ in the specialised
sense ‘husband’, still locally in dótturbóndi ‘son-in-law’, as
the context confirms: tá kom ugla og uglubóndi ‘then came
the owl and the owl’s husband’. Lastly, more evidence for the
practice of name taboo among fishermen in the shape of two
sea terms for the crow, bringing the total for this inauspicious
bird up to eleven or twelve, cf. FBN, 61. The name are vár-
klukka and vattarbak. The former was only applicable in
springtime; it is lit. ‘spring clucker’, cf. klukka ‘to cluck’, mor-
phologically comparable to another noa name for this bird
fjatla lit. ‘hop’, i. e. ‘hopper’, beside do. ‘to hop’, cf. ‘Faroese
names for the Little Auk’ above. The latter, lit. ‘back of
(woollen) mitten, esp. when resewn to make a shoe for use on
a slippery beach’, is pretty obviously a noa name of the humo-
rous type (FBN, 64): reused as a shoe, the back of the mitten
would soon get as black as the back of a crow.