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Laiking


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This word is rather obscure. It's used in the Shetland Norn Cradle song, but I don't know of its other occurrences.

 

Is the word "lyken/lykand" known in Shetland? This is an Orcadian word which means 'in good conditions' and it's origin is usually traced to Scots 'liking/lyking', but there can be an alternative explanation, from Old Norse "illa leikinn" - badly played about > ill-treated, in very bad conditions. By removing "ill" you would get that Orcadian word. But this is a hypothesis that has just come to my mind.

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^^ Difficult to say. There is Shetland usage of a similar word, "laek", in something of a similar vein, but I've always sort of assumed it origniated from the English "looking", but perhaps not.

 

"no ill laek", or " no an ill laekly" describes something that is in good order, the emphasis being on appearance, but with the insinuation that it is in good sound condition as well.

 

Adding the "no", which Shetland has an occasional habit of doing, to the ON "illa leikinn" would produce the reverse and correct Shetland usage meaning.

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^^ Difficult to say. There is Shetland usage of a similar word, "laek", in something of a similar vein, but I've always sort of assumed it origniated from the English "looking", but perhaps not.

 

"no ill laek", or " no an ill laekly" describes something that is in good order, the emphasis being on appearance, but with the insinuation that it is in good sound condition as well.

 

Adding the "no", which Shetland has an occasional habit of doing, to the ON "illa leikinn" would produce the reverse and correct Shetland usage meaning.

So it seems that the ON etymology is quite probable.

 

Shetland dictionary gives "ill-leak" - ugly:

 

http://www.shetlanddialect.org.uk/john-j-grahams-shetland-dictionary.php?searchterm=laek

 

I think that the element "laek" is no longer understood as something independent, so "ill-laek" is considered as a whole unit and "no ill-laek" - as a simple negation, not double.

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I know it doesn't have the k, but laalie means toy/plaything. I'm no expert in etymology, so it might be no relation at all....

Not an easy one.. Scholars compare this word with Icelandic 'lalli' (a little child, toddler). Marwick, author of Orkney Norn, proposed the original form "lal-leikr" - child's toy, doll, but this is more or less a guess. This might be a universal word in children's language (?). This word (in different spellings) seems to be bound with Shetland, Orkney and Argyll:

 

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=1271&startset=22152123&dtext=snd&query=LALL

 

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=824&startset=22160494&dtext=snd&query=LALLIE

 

See also:

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=1197&startset=31739441&query=Lill_for_Lall&fhit=lall&dregion=entry&dtext=dost#fhit

 

So yes, it's not clear, there might be some connection and might be not.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks all. Very interesting how there are similarities between dialects separated by such distance but connected by the past.

 

I've been suprised at how many of the words from my own dialect are from Old Norse. I've just discovered that the word "Gradely" which means excellent or fine (usually uttered by myself or my friends from Yorkshire after the first mouthful of a good pint of bitter) is from the Old Norse "greidhligr".

 

Any similar word in Shetland or Norn?

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