of the roof, are said to lie “under de esins”, perhaps really “under the roof-beams and the rafters”. comm. No. æsing, f., inter alia, beams and rafters in a building, also beams or stocks forming the inside breast-beams (from O.N. áss, m., ridge; beam). L.Sc. easing, eisin, sb., eaves. A sing. form esin [ēsɩn, ēᶊɩn] occurs in the compds. “esin-head” (Nm.), esin-sten, one of the flat stones laid along the eaves to prevent the rain-water entering, — ufsahella, -hellek; but in that case, esin is certainly L.Sc. easing. esmel [æᶊməl], sb., heavy, dense rain. In Ai. “a e. o’ rain” is less violent than a “tømelt”, but contains finer and closer drops than the latter. In a few places in N.Sh. (N.I.) esmel denotes a violent downpour of rain, almost = tømelt and asu, assu. The word is prob. etym. cognate with as(s)u; q.v. For the suffix -mel cf. No. asm, m., and aasme, vb., in Ross under “osna”, vb., = asna, vb., to rush along. Essi [æssi], sb., ash-coloured cow, as a proper name. Du. (not comm.). Shetland Fire-side Tales by G. Stewart, second edition, p. 244 (Mansie Mudjick’s courtships): Essie. Cf. Fær. Eskja as the name for a cow in a rig-marole[errata 1]; doubtless an ash-coloured cow. In that case, Essi for *Eski, trough infl. of “aess” [æss], the Shetl. form of L.Sc. as, ass, sb., ashes. esten [ɛstən, estən], estin [ɛstɩn, estɩn], prop. adv., but commonly used as a subst. and adj.: a) sb., “de e.”, the eastside, the eastern part or neighbourhood; a man f(r)ae de e., a man whose home lies east of a certain place; esp. in Unst, the eastern part, south of Baltasound, being called “de e.”, while the northern part is called “de norden, nordin”, the western part “de wasten, wastin”, |
and the southern part “de sudin”. b) adj., a e. man, a man living east of a certain place. Ti. [est-]. Cf. norden and wasten (under norden).— esten, -in from O.N. austan, adv., from the east, east of (= fyrir austan), towards the east; austanmaðr, a man whose home lies east of a certain place. The form est- replaces an older *øst through infl. of Eng. “east”. The suffix -en, -in, corresponds to O.N., -an. Otherwise, -ten, -tin, suffixed to words (names), must sometimes be accepted as O.N. þing, n., council; district; see *ting, sb. While “de wasten”, similar to “de esten, de norden”, must be supposed to be an old “vestan”, wastin (U.), without def. art., seems to be an old *vest(r)-þing, all the more so, as Wasten, Wastin, written “Westing”, is used as the name of a much more limited district than “(de) esten, norden, sudin”. ester [æstər], vb., of wind: to become easterly, to shift to the east; de wind esters. Fe. The final r points towards an older *øster, arisen from O.N. austr, n., east, with radical r. A change ø > e can be proved in various words in Shetl. Norn, but has, in this case, certainly taken place through infl. of Eng. east, vb., to shift to the east, become easterly. — est [est], sb., east, with close e, is most prob. Eng. east, sb.; est, however, is also occas. pronounced with an open e or æ [ɛst, æst, æist]. †esterli [ē··stərli·, æs··tərli·], adj., easterly, e. wind. Differs from Eng. “easterly” in the pronunc. of the main vowel. Now, however, often with a short, close e in the first syllable, like est, sb. See further ester, vb. et1 [et], sb., doubtless eating, noted down in the foll. phrases: 1) der’r a et upo de fish, de fish is in a et, |
Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/275
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ESMEL—ET
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