Gàidhlig / English
Dùgan

Dùgan

Posted by Edit on Thursday 26th January 2017

This week’s word is dùgan which originates from Garrynamonie, South Uist. According to the Fieldwork Archive, dùgan means ‘dark, peaty soil’ or ‘a loch full of mud, weeds’. It is clear that the first part of the word comes from dubh, ‘dark’, though the origin of the second part remains unclear.

Dùgan seems to be quite a local and unusual word as it is difficult to find any further information about it. Regarding words containing the element dubh that are related to soil and peat, dubh-fhàd is to be found in Dwelly, which may be related to dùgan. Dubh-fhàd means the second layer of peat, which is different from feannad, the surface layer. The word feannad is related to fionn, ‘fair’, as this layer of the peat is lighter in colour than the dubh-fhàd that is found under it. As is stated here, this second layer of peat is not quite as solid as the first one as it is closer to the ground water – hence, there might be a connection between this and the meaning of ‘loch’ that is found for dùgan.

According to the Fieldwork Archive, dùgan also has a figurative meaning – dùgan a’ gheamhraidh means ‘the darkest time of winter.’ At the time of writing, however, the sun is shining very brightly, so it seems likely (or at least I expect) that this time of the year has passed now!

If you have any further knowledge on dùgan or related words, please let us know in the comment section below or on our Facebook or Twitter pages.
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