cennetig

The etymology of 'cennetig'.

18th August 2007

Iain Kennedy

For some time I have been puzzled by two things. Why is there so much confusion as to whether the second part of 'Kennedy'/'cennetig' means 'helmet' or 'ugly/'grim'; and why do these words not seem apparent in my own Gaelic dictionary? (I use Malcolm MacLennan's 'A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language' in its 2005 reproduction form published jointly by Acair Ltd of Stornoway and Mercat Press of Edinburgh, the original having been published in 1925. This in turn was based on Neil MacAlpine's 1831 'A Pronouncing Gaelic Dictionary'). A third question has formulated in my mind; just how much Gaelic schooling do the authors of Scottish and Irish surname dictionaries actually have, and to what extent do they rely on Gaelic language dictionaries?

The first part of the word, 'ceann', proves uncontroversial. Any dictionary will tell you it means head, chief etc. If you are in any doubt, take a look at the railway station sign at Kingussie in the Scottish Highlands... It also appears in multiple locations as 'head of the loch' ie Kinloch, including Kinloch Rannoch. The second part of the name 'etig' (or countless variations) is more tricky. This is what Black summarises, by way of reference to the available dictionaries of the time:

'The modern G. form of the name is Ceannaideach, Ir. Cinneididh, from earlier Cinneide or Cinneidigh, Mid. Ir. Cendetig (Book of Leinster), literally 'ugly headed' (Kuno Meyer) or 'grim headed' (Watson). cf the Gaelic name of Loch Etive, Loch Eitigh, 'ugly, horrid loch'. '

Let's take those references first. Kuno Meyer was an eminent Celtic scholar around the turn of the 20th century and held such posts as Professor of Celtic at the Royal Irish Academy. Unfortunately Black doesn't appear to state which of Meyer's many works he is referring to. He did produce part of a Gaelic dictionary but only the first few letters of the alphabet and the National Library copy appears to be missing. William J. Watson held the chair of Celtic at Edinburgh University, the same post later held by Kennedy Jackson; he was a native Gaelic speaker from Easter Ross. The specific reference is to 'Celtic placenames of Scotland' (first published 1926, reprinted 1973 Irish University Press, Shannon). In 1913 the Royal Irish Academy, under Carl Mastrander, another philologist, this time Professor of Celtic Philology at Kristiana University, started work on the huge publication 'Dictionary of the Irish Language'. This monumental work took literally decades to reach completion, and the letter 'e' was published in November 1932, too late for Woulfe (web page in preparation!). In the absence of a direct quote from Meyer, I turn to the Royal Irish Academy entries written in 1932, which we shall take as definitive for now:

eidigthe

cf etigud

clad in armour; equipped

da miledhaib armtha eidigthi YBL 159 41
(Yellow Book of Lecan ria facs.)

forlion na nGall n-edighthe FM iii 276
(Annals of the Four Masters)

coicc ced decc laech armtha eidithe hugh roe 48.31 (f 26)
(O Cleary's life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell)

ba heidighthi siumh tra cenmota an t-ionadh sin trias ro gaottha FM vi 1978 20

cf vc eidedach vc gan eided, Caith. CC 52 where in the first clause eidigthe is probably meant
(caithreim chellachain chaisil)

So where do the references to 'ugly' come from? They come from the similar word 'eitigh' meaning 'fierce, dismal (O. Ir. 'etig'), to quote from MacBain's 'An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language' (Alexander MacBain LLD. published in Stirling 1911). But note carefully what MacBain says in the etymological notes:

'scarcely 'anteg' unwonted (Zim) for G. would be 'eidigh' The distinction then appears to reduce to the consonant in the middle, with a 'd' giving us the 'armour/helmet' meaning and 't' giving us the 'fierce/grim/ugly' meaning. But is this distinction meaningful? What are the rules on pronouncing these letters in Gaelic? MacLennan tells us this:

d flanked by e or i: as in Eng. j eg 'jerk'
t flanked by e or i: as in Eng. 'chin'
So we can see that you can't actually get a pure 'd' or 't' sound if flanked on either side by an 'e' or 'i', although both letters work as in modern English when flanked by the other vowels. (The vowels are divided into slender (e/i) and broad (a/o/u) and if one precedes a consonant, the same class of vowel must follow it. This rule has a special name 'caol ri agus leathann ri leathann' - slender to slender and broad to broad).