You know, I think gèadh and geòidh were what I was thinking of, unless I picked up geann from something Irish. I know there's a song about eating geese at a big feast, geòidh ann, and maybe I mentally transcribed it to geann for the phonetics, but I can't remember if it's Irish or Scottish. I don't speak Irish, and only a TINY bit of Scots Gaelic. Do you???
And gander, yes, duh! I wasn't even thinking of gander, though I think I've thought of it before. (I've actually thought a lot about gannets and geese and etymology.)
Solent... *looks it up* "a channel between the Isle of Wight and the mainland of S England." Interesting! I didn't know that. When I google "solent goose" I also see it called "channel goose." Does solent mean channel, maybe?
I also see the gannet called solant goose, soland goose, channel goose and chandel goose. (And gentleman. I've never heard of it called a gentleman before.)
And then, the Norwegian word for a gannet is sula, which is also a genus name. And surely the sula and solan words are related.
They used to call the northern gannet "Sula bassanus," which sort of means booby of Bass Rock (in the Firth of Forth - MY Bass Rock. :D ) but now the gannet has its own genus, Morus instead of Sula with most other boobies. But anyway, in French they call it "fou de bassan", the fool of Bass Rock. I like that. :D Poor boobies. I read that they were called that because they were so stupid they could easily be knocked on the head and killed by sailors. And the St. Kildans certainly knocked a lot of them on the head, to eat and to make lamp oil and to use the feathers.
Ha, I speak a *very* little Scots Gaelic, which I'm trying to expand (and actually drill some grammatical rules and so on into my head). Mostly I have folk-song Gaelic, and medieval-poetry Gaelic. Which is, um, limited in usefulness, but *is* how I knew about the geese.
I don't know if solent originally meant channel *curious* - I'll have to go & look it up. I only know it as THE Solent (very AoS-topical, of course, down there in Portsmouth).
I can't imagine why anyone would call gannets "gentlemen". Maybe it's a touch of sarcasm? *loves on them anyway*
Your Bass Rock? What did you do there? *curious* Raven did her PhD on the seals on the Isle of May, and did a lot of fieldwork there, so nearby.
Yeah, same with me, though I don't speak any medieval poetry Gaelic. I do have a book and tape set of "Teach yourself Gaelic," but I haven't done it very much. I know how to say "How are you? Pretty well, thanks. Where are you from? I'm from the Isle of Skye!" which isn't very helpful because I'm NOT from the Isle of Skye. And I know some words from place names.
It's not really my Bass Rock, and I haven't actually set foot on it, alas. But one of the first places I went to in Scotland, back when I was a wee squeaker doing a semester abroad, was Tantallon Castle on the mainland, just across from where the Bass Rock lives. And then several years later, when I was interviewing for Northumbria Uni, I was taking a train back up to Edinburgh afterwards to meet some friends, and looked out the window and there was my Bass Rock again! It was just so thrilling to see it, so familiar and unmistakable. It was like a sign, an old familiar friend on what had been the most nervous day of my life.
One of these days I hope to take a boat to the rock and see the gannets there.
Do find out about solent, because I didn't have any luck online.
And gander, yes, duh! I wasn't even thinking of gander, though I think I've thought of it before. (I've actually thought a lot about gannets and geese and etymology.)
Solent... *looks it up* "a channel between the Isle of Wight and the mainland of S England." Interesting! I didn't know that. When I google "solent goose" I also see it called "channel goose." Does solent mean channel, maybe?
I also see the gannet called solant goose, soland goose, channel goose and chandel goose. (And gentleman. I've never heard of it called a gentleman before.)
And then, the Norwegian word for a gannet is sula, which is also a genus name. And surely the sula and solan words are related.
They used to call the northern gannet "Sula bassanus," which sort of means booby of Bass Rock (in the Firth of Forth - MY Bass Rock. :D ) but now the gannet has its own genus, Morus instead of Sula with most other boobies. But anyway, in French they call it "fou de bassan", the fool of Bass Rock. I like that. :D Poor boobies. I read that they were called that because they were so stupid they could easily be knocked on the head and killed by sailors. And the St. Kildans certainly knocked a lot of them on the head, to eat and to make lamp oil and to use the feathers.
Yeah. Sorry. Rambling a lot.
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I don't know if solent originally meant channel *curious* - I'll have to go & look it up. I only know it as THE Solent (very AoS-topical, of course, down there in Portsmouth).
I can't imagine why anyone would call gannets "gentlemen". Maybe it's a touch of sarcasm? *loves on them anyway*
Your Bass Rock? What did you do there? *curious* Raven did her PhD on the seals on the Isle of May, and did a lot of fieldwork there, so nearby.
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It's not really my Bass Rock, and I haven't actually set foot on it, alas. But one of the first places I went to in Scotland, back when I was a wee squeaker doing a semester abroad, was Tantallon Castle on the mainland, just across from where the Bass Rock lives. And then several years later, when I was interviewing for Northumbria Uni, I was taking a train back up to Edinburgh afterwards to meet some friends, and looked out the window and there was my Bass Rock again! It was just so thrilling to see it, so familiar and unmistakable. It was like a sign, an old familiar friend on what had been the most nervous day of my life.
One of these days I hope to take a boat to the rock and see the gannets there.
Do find out about solent, because I didn't have any luck online.
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Maybe it's the opposite of insolent.
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