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Tha sinn a’ toirt sùil air faclan às an fhaclair aig Raibeart Armstrong. Chaidh fhoillseachadh dà cheud bliadhna air ais. Tha sinn aig an litir ‘f’. ʼS e am facal a thagh mi – ´Úྱ»å³ó ‘prophet, soothsayer’. Às a sin, gheibh sinn na faclan ´Úྱ»å³óeadaireachd ‘prophecy’ agus ´Úྱ»å³óeil ‘like a prophet, prophetic’.

An ath fhacal a tha agam, ʼs e geur-leanmhainn. Tha e a’ tighinn bhon dà fhacal – geur ‘sharp, keen’ agus lean ‘follow, pursue’. Geur-lean ‘pursue hotly or keenly’. Geur-leanmhainn ‘hot pursuit or chase’. Ge-tà, tha ciall a bharrachd air an fhacal fhillte. ʼS e sin persecute, persecution. Rinn e geur-leanmhainn orra ‘he persecuted them’.

Chan e litir ‘cheart’ a tha ann an ‘h’ ann an aibidil na Gàidhlig. Mar sin, ʼs e ‘i’ an ath litir againn. Tha ifrinn a’ ciallachadh ‘hell’. Ifrinn. Anns an fhaclair fhreumh-fhaclach aige, tha MacBheathain ag innse dhuinn gun tàinig e bhon Laidinn infernum. Mar sin, tha ifrinn càirdeach do na faclan Beurla infernal agus inferno.Ìý

Bha beachd eadar-dhealaichte aig Armstrong, oir ’s e àite fuar a bha ann an ‘ifrinn’ nan seann Cheilteach pàganach. Seo mar a mhìnicheas Armstrong e:  Ifrinn means the isle of the cold land ... being a contracted form of i-fuar-fhuinn. The Celtic hell was a cold dark region, abounding in venomous reptiles and wild beasts ... The Scotch Celts ... retain the name, though well aware that cold forms no part of infernal punishment.

ʼS e ‘l’ an ath litir ann an aibidil na Gàidhlig. Thagh mi am facal luidhear ‘chimney, vent’. Tha e cuideachd a’ ciallachadh ‘ship’s funnel’. Bha trì luidheirean air an Queen Mary ‘there were three funnels on the Queen Mary’. ʼS e luidheir – an riochd caol – a tha aig Armstrong. Math dh’fhaodte gun robh am facal air a dhol caol ann an Siorrachd Pheairt.

Mu dheireadh an-diugh, an litir ‘m’. Agus am facal masladh. Tha e a’ ciallachadh ‘shame, disgrace, scandal’. Bhuaithe sin, tha sinn a’ faighinn a’ bhuadhair maslach ‘disgraceful’. Tha sin dìreach maslach ‘that’s disgraceful, appalling’. Tha mi an dòchas nach cleachd sibh fhèin am facal maslach ro thric!

We are taking a new look at words from Robert Armstrong’s dictionary. It was published two hundred years ago. We are at the letter ‘f’. I selected the word – ´Úྱ»å³ó ‘prophet, soothsayer’. From that, we get the words ´Úྱ»å³óeadaireachd ‘prophecy’ and ´Úྱ»å³óeil ‘like a prophet, prophetic’.

My next word is geur-leanmhainn. It comes from two words – geur ‘sharp, keen’ and lean ‘follow, pursue’. Geur-lean ‘pursue hotly or keenly’. Geur-leanmhainn ‘hot pursuit or chase’. However, the compound noun has an extra meaning. That is ‘persecute, persecution’. Rinn e geur-leanmhainn orra ‘he persecuted them’.

‘H’ is not a ‘true’ letter in the Gaelic alphabet. Thus, our next letter is ‘i’. Ifrinn means ‘hell’. Ifrinn. In his etymological dictionary, Macbain tells us that it came from the Latin infernum. Thus, ifrinn is related to the English words ‘infernal’ and ‘inferno’.

Armstrong had a different opinion because the ‘hell’ of the old pagan Celts was a cold place. Here’s how Armstrong explains it: Ifrinn means the isle of the cold land ... being a contracted form of i-fuar-fhuinn. The Celtic hell was a cold dark region, abounding in venomous reptiles and wild beasts ... The Scotch Celts ... retain the name, though well aware that cold forms no part of infernal punishment.

‘L’ is the next letter in the Gaelic alphabet. I chose the word luidhear ‘chimney, vent’. It also means ‘ship’s funnel’. Bha trì luidheirean air an Queen Mary ‘there were three funnels on the Queen Mary’. It’s luidheir – the slender form – that Armstrong has. Perhaps the word had gone slender in Perthshire.

Finally, today, the letter ‘m’. And the word masladh. It means ‘shame, disgrace, scandal’. From that, we get the adjective maslach ‘d¾±²õ²µ°ù²¹³¦±ð´Ú³Ü±ô’. Tha sin dìreach maslach ‘that’s disgraceful, appalling’. I hope you don’t use the word maslach too often!