An gaidheal - National Library of Scotland

—June, 1873. THE GAEL. 12SThe nature of the locality, moreover,favours the idea of the ancient and pristinedwellers being most likely to retaintheir 23ossession of their original locality.Hemmed in on all sides by lofty and impassal>lemountains, ' ' quamvis loca montuosaet tufa alijes altos circuvisepiehant."Here was the most ancient patrimonyof the Macgregors (Glenstrae), the mostCeltic of all the Celtic clans, to whom nowriter ventures to ascribe any Norman orIrish extraction ; so that if these namesbe the old names of the several localities,they must be pure Celtic or nearly so.And as we proceed you shall see howsimilar they are to the whole of Scotland'stopography. Let me premise that I givethe farms nearly in order, beginning atthe source of the Orciiai/.Glen Orchaij = "vale of difficulty."GlfH is from the numerous family, GreekkUn, English lean, Gaelic claoan, claonad,Welsh clain, clanead, " recumbent,""prostrate;" compare glin, "knee,"Cornish (jkuui, "bank," glijtin, Gaelic(jleann, (Gen.) glume, English "glen."Most likely referring to the impassiblecharacter of the region ; of same root asurch or orch in urchaid, "harm," urchaill,"chains," " iettevs," iirghairt "ill fate,""calamity." Compare Lsiiinnrgeo, arceo,verbs denoting "coercion" and "confiningso as to hinder," "impede," Greek arkeo,orkos, Latin orczts "the bourne from whichthere is no return." Here, too, I wouldclass the Orkadkm Isles.Madagan na 7«oi;ia— "little plain ofthe peat mo.ss." MudAigania a diminutivealtered from viag/iagan, inadh, or viagh,"a plain" a most extensively used vocablein the topography not only of Britain l)utof the Continent of Europe as well. Seeour a mach, properly a magh, "in thefield" German, am /eld, viagh, magheadh,Gaelic name of Monzie; so below, moliath,magh liatli, May in Inverness. Machar,machars, with ch for gh in Aberdeen andWigtownshire. Here also I would connectmànas, " a farm steading," as beinggenerally on a level plot, although theGreek mon(^, and Latin ìiuuì.-^Io may beeligible. Welsh ona, modern fa, contractedfrom mag. Aerna^ aer-ma, andcatv, magus, jn'oelii locus = bla7' catha.Helna = hel-ma, venationis locus, fearamiseilg. In the classical writers we have ahost of such names Ehuro-magus Rigomagus,Selgo-magus. In Sanscrit thisword appears under the form of mahi,terra, "earth," old H. German ge-mah,new German gtmacJi, Latin magnusmactus, Greek maia inaias. All aredescended from a root, mah, originallymagh, "to be great, powerful," hence,fi'om the notion of extension applied tothe plains, Ardmacha, Dear-7nacha = 0a,kfield;mag-lunga, campus navis, &c., inIrish places. Oortam na gohhar, "goat'spark." This word is clearly related totheEnglish "garden," Latin Aor-s?(.'i, Greekchortos, "yard," "court." This wordetymologically means "enclosed space,"A. G. geard, A. H. D. gart (gart, kart),"frith," "circle." Several Celtic namesshow this word as Llon-ghortain , "thelint park," gorta'm eorna, "the barleyl>a.rk,"gortaiii-fuarain, "wellpark." Baramhulrkh— "hill top." Bar is clearly thesame as Sanscrit ?^/