Tha an t-uabhas fhaclan Gàidhlig a tha a’ seasamh airson ‘madadh-allaidh’ / There is a large number of Gaelic words meaning ‘wolf’.

Faclan eile airson ‘Madadh-allaidh’

Tha an t-uabhas de cheann-fhaclan ann am Faclair Dwelly a sheasas airson na Beurla wolf, a dh’aindeoin ’s gun deach an t-ainmhidh sin à bith anns an ochdamh linn deug (a rèir choltais). ’S e madadh-allaidh am facal as cumanta an-diugh, agus tha dùil gum buin cuid de dh’ainmean-àite le madadh don mhadadh-allaidh, seach am madadh-ruadh, ged a tha e doirbh a bhith cinnteach mu dheidhinn. Tha faclan fillte eile airson ‘wolf’ stèidhichte air madadh, leithid alla-mhadadh, madadh-mòr, mòr-mhadadh agus madadh-gul (am fear mu dheireadh co-cheangailte ri a nuallan).

©Lorne Gill

Tha faclan eile air an leasachadh air cù, mar a bhiodh dùil. Tha na leanas againn airson madadh-allaidh – fiadh-chù, marbh-chù, cù-fàsaich, coille-chù agus cù geàrr. Ach ’s dòcha gur e an ceann-fhacal as inntinniche – faol – a nochdadh gu h-eachdraidheil na dhreach meanbhain faolan ‘madadh-allaidh beag’. Tha Naomh Faolan ainmeil ann an eachdraidh nan Gàidheal, agus ’s iomadh duine a bhuineas don chinneadh MacIllFhaolain an-diugh. Tha faol a’ nochdadh ann an Dwelly cuideachd mar faol-chù, faol-allaidh agus faol-ulaith. ’S dòcha gum faicear buaidh na Seann Lochlannais anns an fhear mu dheireadh – ’s e ulfr am facal a bh’ aca airson madadh-allaidh. Tha Am Faoilleach, a rèir choltais, stèidhichte air àm nuair a thigeadh na madaidhean-allaidh às na coilltean, agus an t-acras orra. Gu traidiseanta bha Am Faoilleach a’ dol eadar meadhan January agus meadhan February.

©Lorne Gill

Gaelic words for ‘Wolf’

There is a remarkable number of headwords in Dwelly’s Gaelic dictionary which correspond to the English ‘wolf’, despite the fact that the animal became extinct in Scotland (most likely) in the eighteenth century. The one in commonest usage today is madadh-allaidh ‘savage wild dog’; some of the madadh names in our landscape may refer to the wolf, although the fox can also be called madadh-ruadh ‘russet wild dog’. Other madadh-based terms for the wolf are alla-mhadadh ‘savage wild dog’, madadh-mòr and mòr-mhadadh ‘great wild dog’, and madadh-gul ‘wailing wild dog’.

©Lorne Gill

Other names are based on cù – traditionally a hound, but more modernly any type of dog. For the wolf, we have fiadh-chù ‘wild dog’, marbh-chù ‘dead ie killing dog’, cù-fàsaich ‘wilderness dog’, coille-chù ‘forest dog’ and cù-geàrr ‘short dog’. But perhaps the most interesting headword is faol which was historically used in its diminutive form faolan ‘little wolf’ as a man’s name. St Fillan is the anglicised form of Naomh Faolan, and many MacLellans carry a clan name derived from him (MacIllFhaolain ‘son of a follower of Faolan’). Faol appears as faol-chù, faol-allaidh and faol-ulaith, the last perhaps being influenced by the Old Norse ulfr ‘wolf’. The month of January in Gaelic is Am Faoilleach, generally interpreted as the ‘wolf-ravaging time’; it originally represented an older Gaelic ‘month’, from mid-January to mid-February.