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Na Luinn
Unfortunately, we haven’t experienced many hot days so far this summer in Scotland, but if the weather improves during August we may get the chance to use this week’s word, na luinn. Collected in South Uist, this lovely word means a “shimmering, glitter-like appearance in grass during an especially hot summer.”
Two similar words were collected in Lewis, na luin, meaning “shimmer seen on the horizon on a hot day” and lòinne, meaning “heat shimmer.”
Interestingly, none of these variations appear with the same meaning in Dwelly’s dictionary – he gives coileach-teas or criththeas for “shimmering effect on a hot day.”
The word lonn does appear however, with the meaning “high swelling of the sea, surge,” which is somewhat similar to the image of shimmering, rolling grass on a hot day. Luinn is used in a similar sense in a ditty in Carmina Gadelica called ‘Hey the Gift’:
Chi mi ainghlean air an luinn,
Tighinn le cimh us cairdeas duinn
(I see angels on clouds/waves,
Coming with speech and friendship to us.)
If you have ever used the words na luinn, na luin or lòinne on a hot day, we’d be very interested to hear from you through Facebook or Twitter.
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