5.3.3 Gaelic loanwords in English

All languages take words from each other. Gaelic borrows from English – after all, almost all Gaelic speakers also speak English – but English has also borrowed from Gaelic over the years. Examples include a number of words for geographical features associated with Scotland such as:

• ben (beinn)
• brae (bràigh)
• corry (coire).
• glen (gleann)
• loch (loch).

Words of cultural origin include:

• caber (from ‘cabar’ – a tree trunk).
• ceilidh
• clan (from ‘clann’ – children)
• galore (‘gu leòr’ – enough)
• slogan (probably from ‘sluagh-ghairm’ – a war cry)
• sporran (‘sporan’ – a purse)
• whisky (from ‘uisge’, short for ‘uisge-beatha’ – water of life)

More speculative suggestions of borrowings from Gaelic to English include:

• grotty (from ‘grod’ – rotten)
• smashing (from ‘’S math sin’ - that’s good)
• shoot (from ‘siuthad’ – go on)
• twig (from ‘tuig’ – understand)!