Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/275

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,

1. Correction: rig-marole should be amended to rigmarole: detail