ONlwSG

uga m.

Wentworth 2003, s.v. collarbone; AFB^˄.

[ˈuɡ̊ə], gen. idem, and ugan m./f.

Dwelly 1911: m./f.; MacLennan 1925 and AFB^˄: m.

[ˈuɡ̊an], 

AFB^˄: /ugan/.

gen. ugain [ˈuɡ̊æɲ], -[ɛɲ], have the senses ‘upper part of the breast, fore part of the neck, throat; collarbone’ (Dwelly 1911, s.v. ugan).

McDonald (2009, 424) compares SG and Ir. uga and ugan with ON uggi m. ‘(pectoral) fin of a fish’, uggiðr, uggaðr ‘finned, provided with fins’ and eyr-uggi ‘fore-fin’, although they are really modern Icelandic words (Cleasby 1874); cf. Norw. dial. ugg ‘bristle, quill; fin; hackle, mane’ and ugge ‘fin; gill(s)’ (Haugen 1984). The connection was first made tentatively by Goodrich-Freer (≈1897, 67–68 + fn 1), who writes that SG (Eriskay and South Uist) ugann [?leg. ugain, see below] “a fish gill” is perhaps connected with uggi ‘the fin of a fish’; 

As suggested to her by Albany F. Major (1858–1925, see St. George Gray 1925).

so also Marstrander (1915a, 102), who notes the Hebridean context and compares Norw. dial. ugge.

Ir. uga and ugan in the above senses are ghost words. The Ir. ugán to which MacBain (1896; 1911) and MacLennan (1925) refer in their own entries on SG ugan is a variant of Ir. eagán (also iogán (Dinneen 1947; Ó Dónaill 1977)), EG ecán ‘craw, crop’ (eDIL^˄).

For the initial vowel and similar variation in Old Gaelic, see Greene 1976, 40–42.

Dwelly (1911) lists SG eagan ‘gizzard’, citing Armstrong (1825), who cites Shaw (1780), who may have adopted it from O’Begly’s (1732: eagán éin) Irish dictionary, but SG eagan is essentially a ghost word.

Ir. eagán in the sense ‘gizzard’ and eagán in the sense ‘bottom’ are listed separately in O’Reilly 1817 and 1821, so also in Dinneen 1904 and 1927, but together in O’Reilly 1864 and Dónaill 1977 (‘bottom, hollow part, pit; crop’). For eagán in the latter sense, Dinneen (‘abyss, unfathomable depth’) cross-references Ir. aigéan (OG océn < ocían < Lat. oceanus (eDIL^˄)).

During the first half of the 19th century, SG ugan is defined as ‘the upper part of the breast, throat’ (MacFarlane 1815, so also Armstrong 1825), ‘the upper part of the breast, fore part of the neck’ (HSS 1828) and ‘the fore part of the neck, the neck’ (MacEachen 1842).

So MacBain 1896: ‘the upper part of the breast’, and MacLennan 1925: ‘the fore part of the breast, the neck’.

While Goodrich-Freer (ibid.) records the sense ‘gill’, 

?So Forbes 1905, 362: ‘throat or gills’. After Goodrich-Freer, MacBain (≈1911) adds ‘ugann [?leg. ugain, see below] “fish gill” (Hebrides)’ to his (1896) sense ‘upper part of the breast’.

Dwelly (1911) adds the sense ‘collarbone’ to the earlier senses ‘upper part of the breast, fore part of the neck, throat’.

While AFB^˄ lists ugan ‘area from throat to upper chest’ for Benbecula, Tiree and Skye, the palatalised form ugain is recorded by McDonald (1972, s.v. ugain: ugain air ugain, (pl.) an ugainean a chèile, South Uist) and Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄ (s.v. ugan: bha iad an ugain a chéile [sic], South Uist).

According to AFB^˄, SG uga is synonymous with ugan, while Dwelly (1911) describes it as the Gairloch form of ugan, also noting the open compound cnàimh an uga ‘the collarbone’ (cf. Wentworth 2003, s.v. collarbone: Gairloch); uga itself also has the sense ‘collarbone’ (MacLennan 1925), specifically in Lewis (Oftedal 1956, 361; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄) and Harris (ibid.).

SG ugan -[an] is ostensibly from uga -[ə] + the nominally diminutive suffix -an -[an]. A plural form of uga, viz ugan -[ən], appears in a Lewis rhyme: trì ugan adag [sic] (MacDonald 1946, 47) ‘three herring ugas’, while MacLennan (1925) and AFB^˄ give the plural form ugannan -[əᵰ̪ən].

Cf. the phrase an ugannan a chèile ‘at loggerheads, lit. in each other’s throats’ (e.g. AFB^˄).

Anomalously, ugannan is also the plural form given for SG ugan in Dwelly and AFB^˄: one would formally expect (pl.) ugain or uganan. An apparent anomaly also occurs in ugainn, MacLennan’s genitive form of uga, but cf. the genitives in (Cape Breton) far cnàimh an ugainn 

Dialectal for thar chnàimh an uga in the sense ‘head over heels’.

(MacNeil 1987, 300) and (Skye) air spiris an ugainn (from ‘Samhla’, in MacNeacail 1996, 36–37) lit. ‘on the roost of the collarbone’.

It seems likely that the forms of SG uga and ugan have at times been confused.

For example, in the case of oblique forms, in Dwelly 1911, s.v. ugan, so also in AFB^. Goodrich-Freer writes that the form ugann [sic] was sent her by ‘Mr MacDonald’ (otherwise addressed as ‘Mr Allan Macdonald’, ‘the Rev. A. Macdonald’ and ‘the Rev. Allan Macdonald’), but whose own collection of words from South Uist and Eriskay (McDonald 1972) lists ugain (sing.). A misunderstanding also occurs where Krause (2007, 245) interprets Aonghas MacNeacail’s air spiris an ugainn (see above) as containing the genitive of ugann, rather than of uga.

As an n-stem, uga might be expected to yield a variety of genitive forms over time: ugann, ugainn and/or uga (cf. SG gobha ‘smith’, (gen.) gobhann, gobhainn, gobha), while the plural endings in ugan and ugannan are well attested elsewhere (cf. Cox 2017, 108–13). On the other hand, the derivative ugan -[an] (and the dialectal variant ugain -[ɛɲ]) would nominally be expected to yield genitive ugain and plural ugain or uganan (ugainean).

On this basis, it may be supposed that the above Gaelic forms all go back to SG uga, which may simply derive from Scots ug, ugg ‘the collarbone, bone behind the gills of a fish’ (Orkney) and ‘the pectoral fin and adjacent parts of a fish’ (Caithness), which is compared with Norw. ugge and [Ice.] uggi (Marwick 1929; SND^˄).