Gàidhlig / English
Dìobartan

Dìobartan

Posted by Shelagh on Thursday 7 July 2016

Hopefully the summer will return and we’ll get a chance to observe this week’s word, dìobartan, which was described by a speaker from Glenurquhart as sunlight dancing on the surface of the water. The verb dìobair means ‘to expel’ or ‘to give way’; thus, the dìobartan were particles of air or light which appeared to be circling, as if they were pushing against each other. Speakers from Kessock and Strathglass defined dìobartan as an ‘air-tremble’, or the whirling of air above boggy ground on a hot day, and gave the simile ‘as fast as the dìobartan’. The synonym crith-dhìobairtean was also collected in Mull, where crith means ‘shaking’ or ‘trembling’.

Dìobartan was defined by other informants in the Fieldwork Archive as either a ‘will-o’-the-wisp’ or a ‘spinning top’.
 
A related term was collected in Tiree: goir teas, described as a ‘heat haze over the land’. This is a variation of gaoir-theas, defined by Dwelly as a ‘visible throbbing near the ground on a very hot day. The noun gaoir means a loud, painful cry, a throbbing pain or a buzzing noise, as of liquor fermenting or of bees swarming. Gaoir-theas can also be used to describe shimmering cobwebs which would be seen on the grass during the autumn. A similar term, gair-theas, is also given by Dwelly, literally meaning ‘reflected heat’, from the verb gair, ‘to shout’ or ‘to resound’. Thus, the term describes the gleaming, glittering reflection of the sun on the surface of water or the ground.

If you know of any other words similar to dìobartan or goir teas, you can leave comments under our blog posts or on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
 
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