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:


holm

From Middle English holm, holme, from Old English holm (“wave, ocean, water, sea, islet”) and Old Norse holmr, holmi (“islet”), both from the Proto-Germanic *hulmaz (“rising ground, hill, island”), from Proto-Indo-European root *kelH- (“to rise, be elevated, be prominent; hill”).
Cognate with Old Saxon holm, Middle Low German holm, German Holm, Middle Dutch holm, Danish holm, Swedish holme, Norwegian Bokmål holme, Icelandic hólmur.

der

(dialect, chiefly West Yorkshire(?), Scotland, Orkney) Any small island, but especially one near a larger island or the mainland, sometimes with holly bushes; an islet. Often the word is used in Norse-influenced place-names.


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.


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:


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.


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.


finfolk

(Orkney) Sorcerous shapeshifters of the sea in Orkney folklore.


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


swordick

(Orkney) The spotted gunnel (Muraenoides gunnellus).


udaler

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

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:

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


thoo

(Orkney) Thou; singular informal form of you.


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.


windcuffer

From wind + cuffer, from cuff (“hit, slap”); compare windhover.

A windcuffer hovered overhead.

1980, Hamish M. Brown, Hamish's mountain walk: the first traverse, page 51:

An auld ram alone huddled against the wind, that had swept clear the skies even of eagle, windcuffer, and goose. The scent of saltwater rode the wind over the freshwater loch, and the dry field-grasses rattled,

2012, GMW Wemyss, Sensible Places: essays on place, time, & countryside →ISBN, in Wiltonshire, England), page 6

I was gorse on the track beaconing the way,
I was seal in the sea, braving the swell,
I was windcuffer mounting the bitter winds,
I was cloud billowing higher than Hoy.

2012, Caitlín Matthews (born in Portsmouth, England), Bone Song, in John Matthews, The Book of Celtic Verse: A Treasury of Poetry, Dreams & Visions →ISBN

(UK dialectal, originally Orkney, rare) The common kestrel.


foudrie

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


peedie

en-adj

peedie (comparative more peedie, superlative most peedie)

more peedie (comparative)
most peedie (superlative)

Johnny, I just can't resist them peedie white socks with the blue ring round the tops.

1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe, Polygon, published 2019, page 66:

(Scotland, chiefly Caithness, Orkney) Small, little.


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.


cooth

Probably from (unattested) Norn, cognate with Icelandic kóð (“small fry”), Norwegian kot (“small fry, young saithe”), regional Swedish kod (“small fry, young saithe”).

cog

A tinker keened like a tartan gull / At cuithe-hung doors.

1959, George Mackay Brown, “Hamnavoe”, in Carve the Runes, Polygon, published 2021, page 17:

(Scotland, chiefly Orkney) A young coalfish or saithe.


scathold

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