DASG Blog

Reang

Following on from Calum’s post on Tuesday, an adjective recorded in Skye is the subject of this week’s blog: reang, defined as ‘straight, slender’.  The connection to Calum's post isn't immediately apparent but will become clear.  In the pertinent record in the DASG Fieldwork Archive, former Dictionary of the Scottish Gaelic Language field officer Ailig O’Henley notes that the adjective was recorded from Mrs Alexander Nicolson and Dr Alistair MacLean from Bernisdale.  The adjective reang can’t be found in the LearnGaelic dictionary but there is a similar adjective in this source: ‘reangach’, defined as ‘pertaining to or abounding in spars, rungs or staves; skinny, skeletal’.  There are no hits for ‘reangach’ in the DASG Fieldwork Archive but there are a handful of other records in this archive in which reang can be found as a noun, in its singular form and in the plural form ‘reangan’.
 
“Reangan stòbhaig” is found in two records (here and here) from Tiree, although it’s worth noting that the informant was from Uig in Lewis.  'Reangan' is a plural noun and is translated as ‘ribs’ in these records within the following context: “ribs put between the “urlair”. Laid across the boat, steamed and stood on.”
 
Within a similar context, the phrase “tàirnean reang”, defined as “nails used in the ribs of boats”, was recorded from Ruaraidh Alasdair Ruaidh (Roderick Joseph O'Henley) from Garrynamonie in South Uist.
 
The phrase “na reangan” (“ribs”), describing parts of an 'eathar' ('small boat/vessel (with a pointed stern)'), is also found in a record which names two informants: D. Thormoid and Mrs P. MacDonald from Applecross.
 
Is the adjective reang derived from this noun?  Did the adjective develop because boat-ribs are, by their nature, straight and slender?  Is the noun reang always used specifically within the context of boats?  What is the etymology of the noun?  In An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language (published in 1896), Alexander Macbain proposes reang as a loan-word from the Old Norse word rǫng, a word which was used in this very context: 'ribs (of a boat or ship)'.
 
Do you use/know of reang as an adjective and/or a noun?  Let us know at DASG by commenting on this post on our website, on Facebook or on Twitter.