Gàidhlig / English
Aonragaich/aonagraich

Aonragaich/aonagraich

Posted by Edit on Thursday 28 July 2016

This week’s word is aonragaich or aonagraich. According to the Fieldwork Archive, the word was collected in the form aonragaich in South Uist, where it refers to a horse rolling over to scratch its back. The form aonagraich seems, however, to be more common – it has been recorded in North Uist and the Isle of Lewis (here also in the form faonagraich), meaning a horse or other animal rolling on its back in general, as in the sentence each ga aonagraich fhèin (a horse rolling [itself] over).

The word is not only used in the context of animals, however. In the well-known poem Calbharaigh (1943) by Sorley MacLean, which describes the poverty and hardship of the big cities of Scotland in the early twentieth century, the word appears in the final line: “Far a bheil an naoidhean creuchdach / Ri aonagraich gu bhàs”, translated as “Where the infant, all scabs and sores / Wallows ‘til death.”

As can be seen, the word seems to be frequently connected to suffering of some kind when referring to people: the form aoirneagan which was collected in Inverness-shire, appears in sentences such as ag aoirneagan na fhuil (‘weltering in his blood’) in Am Faclair Beag. It also appears in the DASG Corpus in the sentence Cha robh Cailean ach ’ga aoirneagan fèin 'san leabaidh (Mac Cormaic, 1912) – meaning tossing and turning in bed without getting any sleep. In addition to aoirneagan, there are many other forms of the verb, such as aonagail, aonagan and aonagaich.

If you have heard of aonragaich / aonagraich / aoirneagan or another form of this interesting word, please leave a comment under this blog or on our Facebook or Twitter pages.
 
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