English words from Scottish Gaelic
5 English words with Scottish Gaelic in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
bard
It is inherited from Middle English bard, first in Scottish use as baird, borrowed from Scottish Gaelic bàrd, Irish bard, from Proto-Celtic *bardos (“poet, singer”); compare Welsh bardd, Breton barz…
ben
1. It is inherited from Middle English ben, binnen, inherited from Old English binnan (“within, from within”), from be- and innan (“within”), from in. The SOED compares Old Frisian binna and Dutch…
clan
It is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic clann (“family, stock, offspring”), like Old Irish cland, clann, borrowed from Latin planta (“sprout, scion”) (see plant). The Goidelic branch of Celtic had no…
slogan
It is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm (“battle cry”), via the earlier Scots form slogorne, from sluagh “army, host” + gairm “cry, shout”.
spree
Its origin is uncertain. Barnhart suggests an alteration of French esprit “lively wit”, while the American Heritage Dictionary suggests an alteration of Scots spreath “cattle raid”, from Scottish…