These are the Scots Gaelic words for Ewe or female sheep. None of these will combine with bolg to form the word Imbolq. So yet again Imbolc does not mean “In the belly” , It does not mean ewe’s milk. See my last rant: http://elfkat.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/imbolc-does-not-mean-in-the-belly/
You are much better referring to it by its correct name La’ Fheill Bride’ or Latha Fheil Bride’ depending on whether it’s Scots or Irish or An Fhéill-Brìde. Or better yet call it “Candlemas if you aren’t either.
Notice I have included all the Gaelic for milk at the bottom. Sheep’s milk is bainne chaorach, sheep’s milk because as far as I know the wether’s or male sheep do not give milk.If you know something different on that please contact Ripley’s Believe it or not.
Per Dwelly’s Scottish Gaelic Dictionary – Here is the online link if you don’t want to buy the doorstop version of the dictionary: http://www.cairnwater.co.uk/gaelicdictionary/index.aspx?Language=en
| muilichdeann | neighbourhood of L.Eweformuinichill. |
| caora-bheanach | sf(AF) Ewe. |
| ath-dhìonag | (CR) sfShear ewe, maiden ewe, twinter. |
| ribhinn-chrò | (AF) sfBarren ewe. |
| oladh | (AK) s.Sucking ewe. |
| seathaid | sfSucking ewe. |
| fiar-óthaisg | sfYear old ewe. |
| sgrog | (AF) sfOld cow or ewe. 2†† Shrivelled person. |
| crogais | -e, -ean, sfBarren winter ewe, three shear ewe — Lewis. |
| óthaisg | -e, -ean, sfSheep, one year old ewe, dry ewe, ewe teg. 2** in derision,Bashful person, simpleton. 3* Soft, lubberly person. |
| deat | -a, pl.deathaid, sm & fUnshorn year old ewe orwether. Cosmhail ri deat, like an unfleeced year old sheep. |
| crog | -a, pl.-achan & -aichean, sfAged or effete ewe, sheep past bearing. 2 Three winter ewe. 3 Draft ewe, draft gimmer. |
| ciora | -an, [pl. ciorachan — Lewis]sfPet lamb. 2 Sheep that feeds with cows. 3 Cud chewer. 4 Ewe-teg. |
| plumach | (DU) a.Black and deep. Lochan Plumach MhicLeòid — the name of a small deep lake on the south side of Loch Ewe. |
| sgrogag | -aig, -an, sfAnything shrivelled and contemptible. 2 Little old woman. 3 Useless old timber. 4 Stunted growing timber. 5** Oath. 6(AF) Old cow or ewe. 7†† Little horn. 8(CR) Crumpled horn — W.of Ross-shire.9(CR) Mythical aquatic animal — Skye.10(DU) Drinking-horn. Làn na sgrogaig, a hornful (of liquor);béist na sgrogaig, the unicorn in armorial bearings. |
| ceò | gen ceò & ceòtha, pl.ceòtha, smMist, vapour, fog. 2* Amazement. 3** rarelyMilk. 4(DU), Smoke of a fire, the word always heard round LochEwe. Ceò an teas dhen chuan, heat-mist from the sea; ceò an fhuachd dhen bheinn, cold-mist from the hill.Ceò is feminine in Harris etc.Chaidh e ‘na cheò, he got quite amazed; Gall ‘na cheò,Gallamazed (lit.in his mist); ceò teas,vapour, steam;an ceò a dh’fhàgas an seann solas, ‘s e sneachd no gaoth a sgapas e, the mist left by the old moon will be cleared away by wind or snow;sléibhtean ceò air an lear, mountains of mist on the sea. |
| bainne | sm Milk, milky juice. †2 see boinne. Bó-bhainne, a milch-cow; crodh-bhainne, milch-cattle; càmhail-bhainne, milch-camels. bainne asal, asses’ milk. bainne blàth, warm or fresh milk. bainne binntichte, curdled milk. bainne briste, curdled milk. bainne buaile, fold-milk. bainne buidhe, milk yielded by a cow during first two days after calving. bainne chapall, mare’s milk, kumiss. bainne cnàmha, fermentation of fresh and buttermilk, frothed with the loinid or frothing–stick. bainne chaorach, sheep’s milk. bainne gamhnich, milk of a farrow cow (one with a year-old calf and still being milked). See also below. bainne ghobhar, goat’s milk. bainne goirt, sour milk 2 Buttermilk — Argyll etc (better blàthaich). bainne lom, skimmed milk. bainne maistridh, whipped cream or milk, frothed with the loinid. bainne milis, sweet milk. bainne muidhe, ** buttermilk. bainne na cìche, milk of the breast. bainne na cìpe, the milky juice of the mountain herb. bainne nòis, beastings. bainne reamhar, ‡‡ sheep’s milk boiled and curdled 2(AF) Unskimmed, literally “fat milk”. bainne tàig, (for boinne tàig) raindrop. bainne ùr, fresh milk. |
Ronald Hutton writes briefly about Imbolc in “The Stations of the Sun.” He cites the word coming from the Ulster Cycle, which I have seen before, and has this to say about the etymology of the word:
“The same feast (Imbolc), marking the end of winter and the opening of spring, is cited repeatedly in the early medieval literature under the names Imbolc, Imbolg, or Óimelc; … There is, in fact, no sign that any of the medieval Irish writers who referred to it preserved a memory of (its customs), and some evidence that they no longer understood the meaning of the name itself. Sanas Chormaic, a glossary probably produced around the year 900, suggested that it originally meant ‘sheep’s milk,’ a derivation which modern Celticists have pointed out to be linguistically impossible. The later part of the word, however, certainly has something to do with milking, so that Emer’s comment (from the Ulster cycle) must be near the mark: that this is the time when Ewe’s begin to lactate. Eric Hamp has recently suggested, by analogy with other old European languages and customs, that the Old Irish words for milk and milking derived from a lost Indo-European root-term for ‘purification,’ and that this was the aim of the festival; but this remains a speculation” (134).
As for the end “Imbolc,” the only similarity to the Irish word for milk is the “b”, but it would be silent, would it not? I’m not sure why he says it “certainly” had something to do with milking other than what Emer states in the story. I am curious about what this Mr. Hamp has suggested, but my understanding of linguistics is only so much… If he is referring to a proto-IE word, I don’t know what that would be and I wish he had offered that. What are your thoughts on that part of the book?
It either means something very obscure to us or it’s a corruption of some other word or title. I’m not sure the Indo European theory holds because my Gaelic teacher told a story of three Highlanders on a street corner in India during the colony days having a conversation in Gaelic when some Indian gentleman joined them and spoke to them in an Induan language. He could understand what they were saying in Gaelic because a lot of the words were nearly the same.
Ah language. It would certainly be more accurate to say something along the lines of “many people believe the word to mean ‘ewes milk’” as that is, without a doubt true. On the other hand one cannot make a difinative statement about what Imbolc “does not” mean and be any more correct than someone making a statement of what it does mean. We simply don’t know.
Using modern dictionaries to support such a statement is a stretch. The word in question comes to us from the Old Irish (and very likely the Primitive Irish) of which we know very little for certain. Most of what we have of those early forms of the language are limited to place and personal names.
Well, since the Gaelic dictionaries I use contain the old words as well as the new and there are 297 sheep related words in it and none of the them resemble anything the newage people put out as fact, I stand by my post. The majority of people posting refer to each other or Llewellen books which rarely have good information. It’s all rather incestuous and lazy. And I’ll trust a Scots source over an Irish one.