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Sgoldrach
This week’s word is sgoldrach and is defined as ‘a Medusa, kind of jellyfish.’ The word, which appears in the DASG fieldwork archive, was collected in the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll.
A similar word sgeoldair appears for ‘jellyfish’ in Dwelly’s dictionary – it is apparent that this is a version of the same word and this particular form appears to be more common.
The word sgoldrach/sgeoldair is thought to originate from the Old Norse word skjöldur, skjöld, meaning ‘a shield’ and therefore belongs to a group of words connected to the sea that were borrowed into Gaelic from Norse – this group includes other animal words such as sgarbh, ‘cormorant’ and other words such as sgeir ‘skerry’ and acarsaid ‘anchorage.’
Interestingly enough, though the word skjöld is still used for ‘shield’ in the modern Nordic languages, the word does not appear in any surviving words for ‘jellyfish.’ It appears, however, in the Swedish word for tortoise, sköldpadda.
If you’re familiar with any other words for jellyfish, then please let us know on Facebook or Twitter.
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