lire

From Old Norse líri. Cognate with Norwegian lira.

(UK dialectal, Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, ornithology) The Manx shearwater (bird).


hoe

Squalus acanthias
Squalus acanthias#Translingual

(Orkney, Shetland) The horned or piked dogfish, Squalus acanthias.


roost

Sometimes the whole tract swung to one side, like the tail of a live serpent; sometimes, for a glimpse, it would all disappear and then boil up again. What it was I had no guess, which for the time increased my fear of it; but I now know it must have been the roost or tide race, which had carried me away so fast and tumbled me about so cruelly, and at last, as if tired of that play, had flung out me and the spare yard upon its landward margin.

1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:


haaf

From Old Norse haf (“the sea”). Cognate with Danish hav, Old English hæf (Etymology 2).

The banks to which they repair for the haaf fishing, are often many miles distant from the station where the fish is dried; so that they are always twenty or thirty hours absent, frequently longer; and under unfavourable circumstances of wind and tide, they remain at sea, with a very small stock of provisions, and in a boat of a construction which seems extremely slender, for two or three days, and are sometimes heard of no more.

1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

The haaf-boat was as well maintained as any vessel in the islands; her master had a reputation for thoroughness, for all he was barely twenty years of age.

2003, Juliet Marillier, Foxmask (Saga of the Light Isles; 2), page 28:

(fishing, Shetland, Scotland) the open sea, especially as a place to fish

Although men concentrated at the main haaf stations during the summer fishing season, they reverted to their homes in crofting townships for the remainder of the year.

2005, James Coull, “7: The development of fishing communities with special reference to Scotland”, in Jonathan Potts, Hance D. Smith, editors, Managing Britain's Marine and Coastal Environment: Towards a Sustainable Future, page 145:

(fishing, Shetland) the practice of sea fishing for such as cod, ling and tusk


noodle

en-verb

noodle (third-person singular simple present noodles, present participle noodling, simple past and past participle noodled)

noodles (present singular third-person)
noodling (participle present)
noodled (participle past)
noodled (past)

Possibly either:
* a blend of Shetland Scots nune (“to sing softly, croon, hum”) (from Danish nynne, Norwegian nuna, nynna (“to hum; to sing”), originally imitative) + English doodle (“to play the bagpipes”) (chiefly Scotland); or
* from Norn (unattested), from Old Norse *grynta, from Proto-Germanic *grunnatjaną (“to grunt”), a frequentative of Proto-Germanic *grunnōną (“to grunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrun- (“to shout”) (and thus a doublet of grunt).

der

(transitive, intransitive, Shetland, singing) To hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume.

laulaa möristen

to hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume


tusker

From Old Norse torfskeri, from torf (“turf”) + skera (“to cut”), whence also Scottish Gaelic tairsgear, toirsgear and later forms like toirsgein (assimilated to sgian (“knife”)). Known in print from the early 19th century, but doubtless much older.

(UK, especially Scotland, Orkney, Shetland) A tool used in peat cutting, a type of spade similar to a cascrom.


udal

(Shetland, Orkney) Allodial, inalienable.


udal

(Shetland, Orkney) A freehold; property held by udal, or allodial, right.


drow

en-noun

drow (countable and uncountable, plural drow)

A Shetlandic and Orcadian alteration of trow, most likely influenced by an unattested Norn *drog (“malevolent [undead] being”). Trow is derived from Norn troll, or otherwise from Old Norse trǫll. L-vocalisation occurred in the early 15th century in Middle Scots, so "trolly knolls" probably became *trowie knowes around this time. The supposed Norn *drog would have been derived from Old Norse draugr.

der

(rare, mythology, countable) A trow; a member of a race of folkloric beings from Orkney and Shetland; cognate to the Scandinavian troll.


lawman

From Middle English laweman, laȝaman (as a man's name, Laȝamon, Layamon), from Old English lahmann, borrowed from Old Norse lǫgmaðr. In present use as a law-enforcement officer, law + -man.

From the twelfth century Shetland had been administered directly by the Norwegian crown through the 'foud', rather than forming part of the patrimony of a great aristocratic estate. The foud appointed 'underfouds' and the Shetlands evolved their own elected officers, a 'lawman' and parish 'lawrightmen', who adjudicated and negotiated the collection of customary taxes and fines on behalf of the local population.

1983, Paul Thompson, Tony Wailey, Trevor Lummis, History Workshop Series, Living the Fishing, Routledge & Kegan Paul:

(law, Orkney and Shetland) The presiding justice of the supreme court.


saeter

Borrowed from:
* Norwegian Nynorsk sæter (obsolete spelling), seter, and Norwegian Bokmål seter, from Old Norse sætr, setr (“dairy lands, mountain pastures; residence, seat; setting (of the sun)”); and
* Swedish säter (“mountain pastures”);
all from Proto-Germanic *sitjaną (“to sit”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”). The English word is a doublet of sit.

(Orkney, Shetland) A meadow, especially one used for grazing that is attached to a dwelling.


feyness

en-noun

feyness (countable and uncountable, plural feynesses)

(Shetland, folklore, countable) A ghost resembling a living person, seeing which is an omen of that person's death.


peerie

en-adj

peerie (comparative peerier, superlative peeriest)

peerier (comparative)
peeriest (superlative)

(chiefly Shetland and Orkney) Small, tiny.


trow

From Swedish or Norwegian troll. Doublet of troll, a later learned borrowing.

The Trows are of a diminutive stature, and they are usually dressed in gay green garments.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 261:


bonxie

From Scots bonxie, from Old Norse bunki.

Bonxies are more than happy to fly at you as you walk harmlessly across the moors, and they regularly clip people with a wing or extended foot […]

2006, Graham Uney, Backpacker's Britain: Northern Scotland:

It is the large brown bonxies that heckle me as I pass across the high moor and approach the sheep gate.

2020, Tim Ecott, The Land of Maybe, Short Books, published 2021, page 102:

Stercorarius skua
Stercorarius skua#Translingual

(UK, chiefly Shetland) The great skua, Stercorarius skua.


gue

Uncertain, perhaps from Old Norse gígja. If so, doublet of gigue.

(Shetland) A kind of fiddle or violin played on the Shetland Islands.


voe

Shetland and Orkney dialect, from Norn, from Old Norse vágr. Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian våg, and Faroese vágur. Doublet of way.

(British) A narrow sea inlet, particularly in the Shetland Islands, similar to a fjord.


kep

(Shetland) A traditional Fair Isle fisherman's cap.


skift

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-skift.wav

From Scots skift (“light shower of rain or snow”), related to skiff (“light rain, snow, etc”) (which see for more) and skiffle.

der

Last night we had a little skift of snow.

1834, record quoted in 1956, Norman E. Eliason, Tarheel Talk, page 294

Well, there was a little skift of snow on the ground, and I follered up a ridge of the mountain […]

1857, “A Winter in the South”, in Harper's Magazine, page 726:

It was quite cold that morning; just a little skift of snow. We had not gone a mile from camp before we were overtaken by a score or more of boys going home to Missouri. They had been up to the Wakarusa camp — the pro-slavery troops were ...

1915, Ed Blair, History of Johnson County, Kansas, page 61:

A “Skift” of Snow
LAST night we had a “skift” of snow, and it was interesting to notice the effect on the summer-born creatures of the farm. A plump young kitten that had not seen the pesky stuff before came to meet me from the stable ...

1919, Peter McArthur, The Red Cow and Her Friends, Createspace Independent Pub, page 244:

We just got out on the top and there was a little skift of snow a-fallin'.

[...] money from the Appalachian Community Development Association and from Cincinnati's Tall Stacks Festival, so I rented a car and stayed in a motel instead of sleeping on somebody's floor. There was just a little skift of snow on the ground.

A skift of snow had fallen overnight on the ski trails, and Paul had yet to groom them and erase the tracks in the new snow.

2010, Mark Parman, A Grouse Hunter’s Almanac: The Other Kind of Hunting, page 84:

(dialectal, including Scotland, Shetland and Appalachia) Synonym of skiff (“light shower of rain or snow; light dusting of snow or ice (on ground, water, etc)”)


mareel

From an unattested Norn term *mareld, from Old Norse mǫrueldr, from marr (“sea”) + eldr (“fire”). Compare Icelandic maurildi, Swedish mareld.

Coordinate term: milky sea

This is especially the case in late summer when the sea is aflame with mareel and the boats come and go with illumined wakes while the ghostly fire drips from the oar-blades.

1956, The Scots Magazine, volume 65, page 200:

(Shetland) Phosphorescence on the ocean.


drong

Among the fanciful rock forms at this place is the "Old Maid ", a colossal drong resembling the form of a woman.

1870, B. F. De Costa, “Grand Menan: A Summer Reminiscence”, in Hours at Home, Volume 11, page 226:

(obsolete, dialect, Shetland, Orkney) A rock that rises from the sea.


geo

Borrowed from Norn [Term?], from Old Norse gjá.

(Shetland, Orkney, Caithness) An inlet, gully or cleft in the face of a cliff.


scattald

(Orkney and Shetland) Common land used for pasture and digging turf.


vifda

(Shetland, Orkney) Beef and mutton hung and dried, but not salted.


foud

From Old Norse fōgeti, cognate with German Vogt, from Latin vocatus, from vocare (“to call”). Doublet of Vogt.

(British, Shetland and Orkney) A bailiff or magistrate.


knab

See nab, knob (in the sense of a rounded hill).

(Scotland, Shetland, Orkney) a promontory or headland


katmoget

(Shetland, of sheep) Having a belly of darker colour than the rest of the body.


ugg

en-verb

ugg (third-person singular simple present uggs, present participle ugging, simple past and past participle ugged)

uggs (present singular third-person)
ugging (participle present)
ugged (participle past)
ugged (past)

(Shetland, obsolete) To eat a light meal.


udaler

Three boats were destined to this delicate piece of service, one of which the Udaler himself proposed to command

(Shetland, Orkney) One who holds property by udal, or allodial, right.


mirkning

From Scots mirken (“to grow dark, darken, become overcast”), from Old Norse myrkna (“dark, gloomy”) + -ing (noun-forming suffix), equivalent to mirken + -ing.

der

The gloaming glories o’ the lift hae dwined awa’ to grey,
And clachan lichts begin to blink ayont the mirkning brae.

1883, Anthony Cunningham M’Bryde, edited by David Herschell Edwards, Modern Scottish Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices, page 185:

(Scotland, now Orkney and Shetland) Late twilight, dusk; darkening of evening.


noust

From the (unattested) Norn reflex of Old Norse naust (“boathouse”). Cognate with Faroese neyst, Norwegian naust, Danish nøst (“boat-shed”).

Willie discovered Samuel trying to drag a strange yawl up the noust.

1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe, Polygon, published 2019, page 230:

(Scotland, chiefly Orkney, Shetland) A trench or other hollow area, sometimes with walls, where a boat can be hauled up and left ashore.


foudrie

(British, Shetland and Orkney) The jurisdiction of a foud.


uggle

en-verb

uggle (third-person singular simple present uggles, present participle uggling, simple past and past participle uggled)

uggles (present singular third-person)
uggling (participle present)
uggled (participle past)
uggled (past)

Lass, doo'll ugle dy cleen cot, couldna da tooel dü—?


soothmoother

A reference to the south mouth of Lerwick Harbour, the main entry point to the Shetland Isles.

Several of my soothmoother informants pointed out that the Shetlands were not the only islands to have been visited by the Vikings.

1980, Marsha Elizabeth Renwanz, From crofters to Shetlanders:

I was a 'soothmoother', arriving in Lerwick from the south.

1983, William Reginald Mitchell, Birdwatch Around Scotland, page 93:

During the 1860s when Delting, North Unst and North Yell were divided, the Garth estate was managed by its factor, John Walker, a 'soothmoother' from Aberdeenshire.

1985, Susan A. Knox, The making of the Shetland landscape, page 88:

But in Whalsay his distance from those bereaved has an added dimension, for he is an outsider, a soothmoother.

1987, Anthony Paul Cohen, Whalsay: Symbol, Segment, and Boundary in a Shetland Island Community:

Here on Papay folk will speak slowly and sympathetically in a one-to-one conversation with a 'soothmoother', but if you're on the fringes of a pierhead debate about the price of cattle or the weather, then you'll soon be submerged beneath a fast-flowing terminological tidal wave.

1996, Jim Hewitson, Clinging to the Edge: Journals from an Orkney Island, page 41:

She might be a soothmoother, but she lived in Shetland now, and she'd been good to Jimmy Perez after the business on Fair Isle.

(Shetland, Orkney) An outsider; Someone who is not native to the isles, especially someone from the south.


brismak

Ultimately from Old Norse brosma, compare dialectal Norwegian bresma; ultimately related to English bream, which see for more.

The Torsk it seems, from his account, or as it is called in the Shetlands, Tusk and Brismak, is a northern fish, which as yet has not been discovered lower to the southward than the Orknies, and is even rather scarce there.

1804, Edward Donovan, The Natural History of British Fishes: Including Scientific and General Descriptions of the Most Interesting Species and an Extensive Selection of Accurately Finished Coloured Plates, Taken Entirely from Original Drawings:

itt I wiz kummin hemm frae Ska, / whaar I wiz rowin dat simmer, / ee setterdey nycht wi a biudie o' / ling hedds an peerie brismaks, an / bruk o' dat kynd apo ma bak,
that I was coming home from / Ska, wheere I was fishing that / summer, one Saturday night with a creil [or basket] ling heads / and small tusk-fish, and scaps / of that kind upon my back,

1886, "A---d B---y", "Letter in the Dialct of the Shetland Isles", in George Laurence Gomme, Dialect, Proverbs and Word-lore: A Classified Collection of the Chief Contents of The Gentleman's Magazine from 1731-1868, page 31

Twa brismaks, a stäblin', an' four krooners [grey gurnards]!

(Shetland, Orkney) A torsk, a tusk (fish).


underfoud

From the twelfth century Shetland had been administered directly by the Norwegian crown through the 'foud', rather than forming part of the patrimony of a great aristocratic estate. The foud appointed 'underfouds' and the Shetlands evolved their own elected officers, a 'lawman' and parish 'lawrightmen', who adjudicated and negotiated the collection of customary taxes and fines on behalf of the local population.

1983, Paul Thompson, Tony Wailey, Trevor Lummis, History Workshop Series, Living the Fishing, Routledge & Kegan Paul:

(British, Shetland and Orkney) A lower-ranking foud; a subbailiff.


guykerl

From English gyre-carlin, from Old Norse gýgr (“ogress”) + English carline (“old woman”).

He went up his hill for a large stone he knew would be sufficient, but as he was returning, staggering under the weight of the enormous boulder, his Guykerl saw him and cried out jeeringly.

1932, Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby, Shetland Traditional Lore, page 132:

The giantesses or guykerls seem to have survived their husbands for some considerable time, for they continued to play an active part in folklore.

1981, James R. Nicolson, Shetland Folklore, page 91:

(Shetland) A giantess, typically a giant wife.


shoopiltie

(Shetland) Synonym of kelpie (“water spirit”)


mirrie dancers

* Said to be from Scots mirrie (“merry”) + dancers.
* That may be a false cognate. See discussion at shetnews.co.uk Community/History in a wird, 1 March 2023. Mirr can mean 'to shimmer', among other senses.


brönnie

(Shetland) A thick, oatmeal scone or cake.


kokkaloorie

Borrowed from Scots cockaloorie, from Norn kokkeluri.

I've made you a present, Bella! Do you want to see it? It's a kokkaloorie chain.

2012, 8:38 from the start, in Shetland, season 3, episode 6:

Shetland men aren’t known for their grand romantic gestures (sorry guys) ‒ they might give you a lamb for the freezer and perhaps a kokkaloorie (daisy) from the yard, but 12 red roses and a candlelit dinner, probably not!

2020 May 29, Laurie, “Shetland with Laurie’s guide to the best of Shetland fiction”, in Shetland with Laurie, Dancing with the Ferryman by Frankie Valente:

Bellis perennis
Bellis perennis#Translingual

(Shetland) common daisy (Bellis perennis)


black land

black land (third-person singular simple present black lands, present participle black landing, simple past and past participle black landed)

black lands (present singular third-person)
black landing (participle present)
black landed (participle past)
black landed (past)

Back-formation from black landing (“illegal fishing trawl in excess of fishing quotas”).

bf

(Shetland) To illegally trawl fish in excess of fishing quotas.


black landing

(Shetland) An illegal fishing trawl in excess of fishing quotas.


town mail

When they want beef or mutton on any festal occasion, they betake themselves to the Shetlanders' scatholds or townmails, and with elf-arrows bring down their game.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 262:

(Shetland) A piece of green pasturage attached to a house.


scathold

(Shetland, Orkney) An area of open ground for pasture or for furnishing fuel; a scatland.